Food, Culture & Environment

Week 1: Our Interaction with Food
In this module, we introduce the biocultural framework that outlines how socioeconomic, physical, and sociocultural environments contribute to cuisine, diet, and ultimately, individual nutritional status.

Week 2: Evolution of the Human Diet
Are humans meant to eat meat? Think about what you have eaten so far this week--is it equally divided between vegetables, fruit, grain, meat, and other animal products or does it include only some of these food categories?

Week 3: Nutrition Efforts, Policy, and Transparency in the U.S
How is it that at one point in a person’s life a food is considered to be a healthy part of the diet, and then at another point, the same food can be deemed detrimental to a person’s health?

Week 4: Subsistence Strategies and the Sustainability of Modern Agriculture
Food intake is directly related to our surrounding environment. What happens when people migrate? How do factors like globalization and climate change affect nutrition-related choices and health status?

Week 5: Food in the Family, Religion, and Healthcare
In this module, we'll examine religious food practices and nutritional status, while learning about different religious groups and how they are connected through dietary habits.

Week 6: Socioeconomic Status, Food Access, and Food Security
...how does our food environment contribute to what we eat? What disparities exist between food environments and cultures? Does the food environment affect low-income and high-income communities in the same way?

Week 7: Marketing, Labeling, and Food Entrepreneurship
In this module, we'll analyze food marketing and labeling tactics and their connection to the foods we choose to eat. How do these factors influence our perception of foods, both psychologically and physiologically?

Week 8: Sensory Experience and the Future of the Food Movement
In this module, we'll discuss how the concepts of food as art and food as science intertwine.

purpose of this forum
This "week by week" forum, and the sub-fora it contains, is intended for informal chats about course topics. Here you can try out ideas, ask questions and "hang out" with a group of people who want to go on having dialogue after the FCE class ends.