Diet as a somatic function and cultural achievement

What can humans eat? Why do they eat what they eat? How has eating behavior changed in recent decades? What nutrients do humans need? Are there rules for healthy eating? Hunger and thirst are elementary experiences. But what we eat and drink is not a function of the body’s needs alone. Foods and beverages are also an expression of a person’s cultural environment. Thanks to successful agriculture and a prosperous food industry, food shortages are a thing of the past in developed countries. Given the ever wider range of products available, consumers must choose for themselves. Food should both enhance enjoyment and benefit health. It is the expression of a particular life style. Food’s impacts on environmental protection and on the preservation of natural beauty and wildlife also merit attention.

Ingestion

Eating starts as a sensual experience of smelling, tasting, and chewing. By contrast, the way in which food is broken down and used takes place largely unnoticed inside the body. This process, digestion, is depicted through anatomical models, charts, diagrams, and specimens that the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum has produced at various times. The materials and illustrative approaches have changed over time, but human anatomy has not. A sense for the inner workings of your own body originates in association with personal memories – the moment you choked on a fishbone, the times your stomach has growled, or intense thirst you have had.

Nutrition and Health

A faulty diet can impair health. The early twentieth century was still marked by deficiency diseases due to the social iniquities of that period. Since the mid-twentieth century, growing prosperity has provided sufficient food, but it has also been accompanied by diseases of overconsumption, such as diabetes, tooth decay, and alcohol abuse. A variety of methods used in health education and nutritional advice have therefore focused attention on the individual’s freedom of choice.

Manufactured Food

More than 80 percent of our food today is industrially produced. Thanks to increased efficiency and automation, food has become more plentiful and less expensive for all population strata in the last 100 years. Technical inventions have made shopping and kitchen work simpler and less time-consuming. However, affluence also entails health risks and leads to environmental problems.