Nutritional anthropology

Food anthropology is a branch of physical anthropology that studies human nutrition from prehistoric times to the present day. Since food is a complex phenomenon, theories and methods of anthropology, economics, ecology and nutrition are applied to the study of food.

Many anthropologists and health professionals have been interested in a multidisciplinary approach to the issue of nutrition and human nutrition through this anthropology.

The study of eating is of special interest from a cultural perspective, since this is one of the behaviors that presents the greatest inter and intracultural variability.

There are multiple factors that influence the selection that people make of food such as their sensory characteristics, economic and ecological factors, the perception of food and the classification that is made of these, and the symbolic factors linked to the same in relation to elements of status, gender, sects, beliefs, knowledge, and values assigned to them. On the other hand, there are a series of links with other symbolic fields such as health, illness, body image and aesthetics, pleasure and interpersonal relationships, which have deep sociocultural components.