Culture, eating behavior, and infectious disease control and prevention

Abstract

Humans need to obtain nutrients from foods for survival and health. Culture and belief play important roles in food selection and intake. Throughout human history, dietary factor has been one of the important factors inducing and causing outbreaks of infectious diseases. If unhealthy eating behavior, like eating raw/undercooked food or meat and products from wild animals, are not abandoned, foodborne infectious diseases will remain an important risk factor of outbreaks and epidemics. The misconception of dietary culture is one of the important factors that triggers unhealthy eating behavior. Therefore, it is vital to change people’s conceptions and knowledge about what is healthy to eat, in order to completely eliminate unhealthy eating behavior and prevent the recurrence of foodborne infectious diseases. Meanwhile, many factors such as family, society, region, and religion should be involved in.