We often take food for granted, regarding it primarily as a source of sustenance. However, food is much more than just a means of survival. It is present in all major aspects of our lives, making it an integral part of culture. In fact, food plays an important role in how we view ourselves and communicate our identity to others through the processes of eating.

As Cara De Silva has observed in In Memory’s Kitchen, A Legacy from the Women of Terezin, “Food is who we are in the deepest sense, and not because it is transformed into blood and bone. Our personal gastronomic traditions ~ what we eat, the foods and the food ways we associate with the rituals of childhood, marriage, and parenthood moments around the table, celebrations ~ are critical components of our identity.”

Food also serves an important role by helping to cultivate relationships both in the family and in the community. Additionally, food and food preparation often create the identity of women and their role in the family in patriarchal cultures.

Through our food and food habits we can also express our religious differences. It is important to note that food also functions as a source of nationalist identity, and it is quite often at the epicenter of political issues. In recent years, we have observed a sharp rise in food-focused consumption, media and culture, which has often been described as a “food explosion.” Food has many complex dimensions and rhetorical implications. I have, therefore, chosen to focus on just a few important dimensions of food.

We not only define ourselves based on the kind of food we consume but we also communicate to others that identity through the consumption of food. As Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, renowned French lawyer and gastronome in the early 19th century, claimed in The Physiology of Taste, “Tell me what kind of food you eat, and I will tell you what kind of man you are.” In other words, we all project who we are based on the food we consume and those that we choose to avoid. For example, we may identify ourselves as a “vegetarian,” “non-vegetarian,” “vegan,” “carnivore,” “omnivore,” or as a “foodie.”

In contemporary Indian society, we witness two kinds of distinctly different identities when it comes to the consumption of food: one is the “traditional” eater who sticks to her/his ethnic food whether it is Bengali, South Indian, Punjabi/North Indian, or others. And then we see the emergence of “cosmopolitan” foodies in many major metropolitan cities in India who pride themselves on trying all kinds of non-Indian cuisine.

This kind of cosmopolitanism as demonstrated in food consumption in India doesn’t just signify their curiosity and open-mindedness about trying “foreign” food, but it is also reflective of their class in Indian society and the privileges that come with that class.

This relationship between our consumption of food and how we communicate about our identity mostly tends to be situational because we use food or behaviours associated with its consumption differently depending upon the social situations in which we find ourselves. For example, an individual on a date may consume certain foods rather than others to reflect her/his distinctive taste and class. Furthermore, this person may also choose not to overeat or may even engage in formalised etiquette on the date to impress the other person. However, in a family situation, the same person may not feel the need to engage in such rules of etiquette.

In addition to defining ourselves and communicating our identity to others based on what food we consume, we also establish social relationships on this basis. We generally feel a natural bond with people who share similar eating habits to ours. For example, a person who identifies herself/himself as a “vegetarian” may want to associate more with folks who have the same interests or share similar views about food consumption.

More importantly, the act of sharing a meal serves to build relationships and, ultimately, community. Research indicates that eating together at the same table is a particularly important way of incorporating others into the family/community and fostering a sense of unity among disparate groups.

In patriarchal cultures, women have been historically relegated to the private sphere of the home where food and its preparation have been the most concrete markers of their identity as wives and mothers. For these women, cooking serves as an important source of personal pride, confirming their importance in the family unit. To be an “ideal” housewife in these cultures, the woman is often trained by her mother or mother-in-law to be a good cook for her spouse and the family.

Food also serves as a cultural marker to indicate one’s own religious group from others. For example, for Hindus, eating beef is taboo. On the other hand, eating pork is taboo for Muslims, and pork and shellfish for Jews is taboo. While Muslims prefer halal meat and Jews Kosher food, all these food taboos are expressions of inclusion and exclusion and, ultimately, identifying those who belong to one’s own group and who don’t. Food taboos can also be taken to an extreme level, which often ends up in the killing of innocent people in the name of protecting food taboos as evidenced in our country, where Hindu cow protection vigilantes ended up killing Muslims in the name of the revered animal.

Food is also strongly linked to nationalism. Last year, Florence’s government was concerned that the city’s Italian culture was being attacked by the invasion of foreign food. According to Dario Nardiella, mayor of Florence, “Mass-produced foreign foods are replacing our traditional trattorias (small Italian restaurants) and historical food shops. We have to put an end to it.”

In northern Italy, Verona’s mayor stated that a provision limiting most “ethnic” restaurants will result in no more openings of ethnic food establishments that sell food prepared in a way that could impact the decorum of their city and threaten traditional Italian culture. Reportedly, Venice is also considering one of these so-called UNESCO laws, which preserve and protect historical cities from outside influence. It’s hard to look at these laws and not see them as simply a new form of nationalism. Italy isn’t the only country barring foods, which are found to be “foreign” by Italians.

In 2011, France banned ketchup from its school lunches. According to media reports, French politicians and the media have been piling on against Quick, a Franco-Belgian fast-food chain, over its policy of serving halal meat in eight of its 362 outlets. Similarly, when Danish people found out that Denmark was serving halal meatballs in hospitals and schools, they were infuriated. The Danish People’s Party, which wants to restrict immigration and force assimilation of the country’s immigrants, believes that such practices threatened Danish culture and its traditions.

Let’s also not forget that food also plays a critical role in political movements. For example, the Slow Food Movement in Europe is one such example. The Slow Food Movement began in Italy as a response to the opening of the American fast-food chain, McDonald’s, in Rome. While the Slow Food Movement got started as a response to fast food, it has now become a resistance to the fast life that seems to take over in many Western cultures.

There are also pockets of resistance to mass produced food, which is often detrimental to health. Communities across the world have launched political campaigns to boycott such kinds of mass-produced food and, instead, opt for good, clean food. These groups, which resist the consumption of mass-produced food, believe that we should not only eat food that tastes good, but it should also be produced in a clean, healthy way that does not harm the environment, animals, our health, or the food producers.

It is indeed heartening to note that the Slow Food Movement has now come to India, attempting to oppose the supermarkets that have mushroomed all over, selling mass-produced food. According to media reports, an Indian chapter of the Slow Food chef’s charter has been founded. There have already been introductory dinners from Mumbai and Delhi to Shillong to showcase dinners to raise the consciousness of people about the importance of utilising locally grown, fresh ingredients based not only on regional but also world cuisines.

It is evident that food has become increasingly important within our processes of communication as a means of expression, manifestation of identities, form of nationalist identity and political movement, and the hallmark of social relationships. Furthermore, with the growing interest on the aesthetics of food, taste, and pleasure all over the world, food has certainly been elevated beyond its nutritional value to a form of “art for art’s sake.”

The writer is Professor of Communication Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.