tain attributes of culture should be considered, especially by the individual who sees the need to change dietary patterns in a sociocultural system. One important attribute is that culture is a learned experience, not a biologically determined experience. It is the product of interaction among generations, always with some modification over time. Thus the notion that culture is learned also implies that it can be unlearned, a very important point in view of the specific dietary cultures as discussed further in this paper.
Change is another attribute of culture, and cultural processes change at different rates. Thus we can view food habits as a dynamic process, always changing. Every culture also resists change by a selfgenerated mechanism to perpetuate its cultural traits and maintain its boundaries. Food habits, although far from fixed, like all fundamental habits, are resistant to change.
Food as a vehicle of nutrients has an astounding range of meanings that varies by sociocultural group, by religion, by sex, age, and marital status, and even within professional fields or classes. Food to a nutritionist may at different times mean nutrients, calories, intake, preferences, flavors, fads, services, habits, practices, and objects of praise or complaint. The sanitarian may regard the food in terms of the services of restaurants, hotels, diners, or grocery stores; the problems of safe storage and disposal; of samples to collect and test to assure protection against contamination. The epidemiologist may view food as a medium for carrying disease, a source of infection, or as the base for bacterial culture, or as a long-term cause of disease.
Although much is yet unknown about trace elements, the study of nutrition has progressed to the point that it is now possible to specify what constitutes an adequate diet and even to devise such a diet consisting solely of highly purified and synthetic components. However, men a...