The influence of food helps shape a person’s individuality as it is rooted in how a simple cuisine is passed down from a previous generation.

Food is a household and organismic staple that allows one to metabolize nutrients and continue to live. In a society, the influence of food goes deep as it defines a culture, a societal structure, and even a personal sense of self. Food also allows for the connection between races, knowledge about a country, and the different traditions that tell the story of historical events.

Eleanor Gaccetta’s Generations of Good Food is a compilation of recipes that span six generations. Each recipe has a heartfelt story of the Italian life that brought families together around the dining table. One will have a taste of home on Generations of Good Food as the nearly 200 recipes for main dishes, desserts, pastries, and candies will remind the readers of family gatherings and the atmosphere of home.

A Healthy Living

One example of influence of food is living healthy. We have learned from school that living a well-balanced diet will help us avoid serious health issues. Plus, eating healthy with proper exercise allows one to aim for an image they wanted without having any serious health issues. Most people with good skin, strong teeth, and amazing physiques count on eating a well-balanced diet and exercising. Food shapes a person’s sense of self through the good effects it can provide.

Photo by Louis Hansel

A Religious Living

The diet of other people may also be root from a strong influence of food backed by doctrines of religion. Some religion would avoid eating foods ~~stuff~~ that contains ingredients not abiding to the scriptures.

For example, Islam, Judaism, and some parts of Christianity will avoid eating pork, as it is in the scriptures that pigs are unclean animals. Believers follow the scriptures as part of the religious culture, allowing them to find their way to salvation.

Birthday Traditions

The influence of food on the sense of self also impacts special events in life. One good example is celebrating birthdays. Most parts of the world celebrate birthdays with cakes, complete with candles, to make a wish for them. Other countries celebrate it with long noodles, butter, fairy bread, lavish dinners, and drinks.

Celebrating birthdays creates memories that the celebrant can look back to. Sometimes, birthdays are celebrated with a family recipe that the host can share to the guests to enjoy the day. Preparing food for birthdays helps gather around family and friends, keeping a positive atmosphere. With this, children associate birthdays with fun, music, and good food, such as cakes and drinks.

Learning Foreign Languages

Do you know how to say the word croissant? How about bruschetta? Well, if you’re not French or Italian, you might find it weird when you try pronouncing them at first. Over the years, we definitely learn other languages through food even if we can’t perfectly pronounce the words well. It takes a lot of practice, but we will eventually get there.

The influence of food on one’s sense of self includes getting to know other countries’ delicacies, main dishes, and food language. Food opened our eyes to learning more about the languages and traditions of other countries. It provides us with an opportunity for diversity and inclusion.

Table Etiquette

Have you ever tried practicing how the royals would eat their meal? Do you find it more attractive if you try knowing the proper etiquette around a dining table? Practicing good table etiquette influences food and our personal sense of self. As we go to high-end restaurants, we tend to be more proper when we taste different cuisines that we don’t usually have at home. Some people tend to become more behaved when presented with a properly set table. Sometimes, they apply the etiquette at home and be proper anywhere.

Generations of Good Food by Eleanor Gaccetta can help introduce readers and chefs to an Italian-American culture that gathers friends and families together at a dining table. Buy the book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, www.onecaregiversjourney.com, and the ReadersMagnet bookstore.