Turkish food culture and nutrition habits in the development of history

Abstract

Since the existence of mankind, nutrition is one of the necessities to maintain their vital activities. Nutritional habit, a physiological movement, has progressed in parallel with the development of living conditions of mankind. This instinctive behaviour has started with gathering in the nature originally. People have found edible foods by distinguishing the harmful plants in the nature. Mankind, who had learned cooking with the invention of fire, has discovered foodstuffs that can be obtained from animals in time. Due to this discovery, they had an opportunity to try different flavours and supply a greater variety of needed macro components of their body such as proteins, vitamins and essential oils etc. This nutrition diversity has brought with the taste phenomenon. The major reasons of consumed food variety are the climate of the region they live in, the condition of nature and the kinds of vegetables, fruits, grains that grow in these regions. Furthermore, it is inevitable that the diversity of animals living in the region causes food diversity. This situation, which is the result of ecological balance, has been one of the main causes of cultural differences between societies over time. The culinary culture has been seperated by geographical regions over time and a sub-culture called "regional dishes" has formed. Until today, mankind have developed new tastes by experimenting with many food preparation and cooking techniques. In this study, the development of Turkish food culture and nutrition habits throughout the history have been reviewed.