Have you ever wondered what the food you eat every day can tell you about where you come from? Have you ever wondered why people from different parts of the world eat different types of food? Do you ever ask yourself why certain foods or culinary(烹饪的)traditions are so important to your culture? There is more of a connection between food and culture than you may think.

On an individual level, we grow up eating the food of our cultures. It becomes a part of who each of us is. Many of us associate food from our childhood with warm feelings and good memories and it ties us to our families, holding a special and personal value for us.

On a larger scale, food is an important part of culture. Traditional cuisine is passed down from one generation to the next. It also operates as an expression of cultural identity. Immigrants bring the food of their countries with them wherever they go and cooking traditional food is a way of preserving their culture when they move to new places.

In China, harmony is a vital quality in almost every aspect of life. This is reflected in Chinese cuisine, where almost every flavor is used in a balanced way creating delicious dishes with flavors that go well together. The cuisine of the United States also reflects its history. The European colonization of the Americas brought European ingredients and cooking styles to the U. S.

As the world becomes more globalized, it is easier to access cuisines from different cultures. We should embrace our heritage (传统) through our culture’s food but we should also become more informed about other cultures by trying their foods. It’s important to remember that each dish has a special place in the culture to which it belongs, and is special to those who prepare it.

Eat like a king in the morning, a prince at noon, and a peasant at night. This saying is all about the importance of breakfast. And now scientists can tell us just why it’s so important. According to a study carried out at Imperial College London, UK, skipping the first meal of the day not only means you eat more at lunch, but also that your brain wants to find more unhealthy foods.

The study suggests that there is a special part of our brain called the orbitofrontal cortex (眶额皮层), which plays an important part in making choices about what we eat. It is used for identifying the taste of food, especially when skipping breakfast. It is more likely to target high-calorie foods when you’re on an empty stomach.

Scientists did an experiment on this. Dr Tony Goldstone from Imperial College London, scanned (扫描) the brains of 21 men and women, around the age of 25. On the first day, these people skipped breakfast before the scans. On the second day, they had cereal (谷物), bread and jam as breakfast. After the scan on both days, they had their lunch.

When the volunteers had skipped breakfast, they ate around 20 percent more at lunch, compared with days when they had eaten breakfast.Their brain scans also showed the orbitofrontal cortex was especially responsive to high-calorie foods. “We believe that bit identifies the value of foods — how pleasant, how delicious something is,” Goldstone told The Guardian.