Some Food for Thought

For many people, cultural exploration includes or even centers around the excitement of sampling diverse cuisines of the world. When it comes to breakfast, however, the sleepy morning preference is often familiarity. Allowing for personal and even national variations, there are some general patterns on European, Latin American, Asian, Middle Eastern and African breakfast plates. One surprise for Westerners is the savory Asian morning meals that a Korean or Japanese person could just as well have for lunch or dinner. In contrast, Westerners tend toward sweet foods like sugary cereals, syrup-laden pancakes or at least a smattering of jam on toast.

Eating preferences are conditioned early on by what scientists call "prenatal flavor learning," followed by habits taught in childhood. Nevertheless, some describe a person's dietary choices as one of the last bastions of individual control. Some eat for health, others for sensory gratification; some shop locally, others revel in exotic possibilities from around the world. We have stereotypes of waiflike vegetarians, aggressive carnivores, careless junk-food devourers and obsessive calorie counters. Although globalization has brought us copious choices of foods and ways to consume them, it has also complicated the seemingly innocent question of what's for dinner.

口腹之思：重探現代健康飲食

對很多人來說，文化探索包含品嚐世界上各種不同美食所帶來的刺激，或甚至以此為中心。不過，一提到早餐，大家在睡眼惺忪的早晨所偏好的餐點通常頗為相似。考慮到個人甚至國家的差異，歐洲、拉丁美洲、亞洲、中東與非洲的早餐其實都有些普遍的模式。但令西方人感到訝異的一點是，韓國人或日本人所吃的鹹早餐，也可拿來當中餐或晚餐。相反地，西方人傾向甜的早餐，例如含糖麥片、淋滿糖漿的煎餅，或至少在吐司上抹一點果醬。
飲食偏好在極早的年齡就被科學家所稱的「孕期味覺學習」所制約，接著加上孩提時被教導的習慣。儘管如此，有些人卻把飲食選擇描述為個人控制的最後堡壘。有些人為了健康而吃，有些人為了感官滿足而吃；有些人購買本地食材，有些人則醉心於世界各地的異國餐點。我們懷有各種刻板印象：身材瘦小的素食者、積極的肉食者、漫不經心的垃圾食品愛好者，以及著魔的的卡路里計算者。全球化雖為我們帶來豐富的食物選擇以及食用方式，卻也使晚餐吃什麼這個看似簡單的問題被複雜化了。