ABSTRACT
The author considers food behavior to be part of a cultural system because it is influenced by the cultural factors. However, like other aspects of culture, these various sociocultural categories are not usually studied together as related components. As an applied anthropologist-health educator, author believes that understanding such systemic relationships of great value in the development of nutrition education programs for health promotion and disease prevention. The chapter presents ethnographic data from eight study households in a North Carolina community to suggest possible relationships between food behavior and other aspects of the cultural system. Two other factors that are thought to influence food behavior are household size and conjugal status. The relationship between social systems, ideational systems, and behavioral systems suggests the place of food behavior within a cultural system, as social and ideational systems are viewed as determinants of behavior.
