Food and Nutrition: Links and gaps between tradition and evidence based science
AbstractFood affects human life, culture, and economy. Food leads to three branches of evidence based science including food science (preparation, preservation, safety and quality), nutrition (efficacy of foods in promoting human health) and dietetics (optimum management of nutrition). Inappropriate food habit and unbalanced lifestyle are the main reasons of many common diseases all over the world. In the developing countries, shortage of foods causes hunger, whereas in the developed and rich world improper eating is the problem. Traditional and/or religious guidelines could play a role in both situations. For example, recently researchers in the evidence based science field identified significant benefits of the Mediterranean diets in human health. Motivation is one of the keys in changing people to a healthy food habit and this is a challenge for the nutritionists and dietitians. Religious and cultural intervention could play a significant role in motivating people for healthy eating. Most of the religions and/or traditions provide broad guidelines on foods and eating. The first part of this paper will provide summary of the links between evidence based nutritional sciences and religious belief, and how to apply religious intervention for motivating a person for a healthy diet. The religious guidelines are more generic and/or broad and they do not provide detailed options for all possible scenarios. It is evident that for more details we need to use available guidelines generated in the evidence based science while keeping intact the overall religious philosophy or moral. The second part of this paper will attempt to justify why we need to link evidence based science with religion and/or culture. All these analyses in this paper are conducted based on the Islamic perspective.
How to Cite
Rahman, M. S. (2011). Food and Nutrition: Links and gaps between tradition and evidence based science. Revelation and Science, 1(01). Retrieved from https://journals.iium.edu.my/revival/index.php/revival/article/view/16