Asian American Culture Essay

Asians are one of the fastest growing groups in the United States and their culture is unique. A majority of the Asian culture is known for making big dinners to bring the family together to simply talk or celebrate together. There are three main categories of Asian dietary culture, which are the southwest, northwest and southeast. We will be focusing on the second largest dietary culture of Asia, which is in the northeast that contains China, Korea, and Japan. Food in this culture is not only a method of fueling ones body it is also used in certain types of medicines to heal ailments and also used in religious offerings.

Food

Chinese food seems to be one of the most popular of all Asian styles of cooking. Southern dishes center more on freshness

The Asian population is known for having less heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and caner. Their foods are lower in fat and lower in protein. Chinese consume a lot of grain, fruits and vegetables. This has also been proven in the china study.

Medicine

In Chinese medicine, food is placed in 5 categories: cold, cool, neutral, warm and hot. Its actual temperature does not categorize the food, but by what effects it has on a person's body after they eat it. When someone continually eats one type of food, it creates an imbalance in their body, and affects their immune system. Therefore, one of the keys in Chinese medicine is to keep our body "neutral."

Foods that are warm and hot bring heat to our bodies. While cold and cool foods cool down our bodies. Neutral foods are foods like oil, rice, pork and most kinds of fishes. A person who has too much heat in their body usually feels hot, sweats all the time, is grumpy, has a swollen tongue, or could be constipated. People, who have too much cold in their bodies appear pale, have cold hands and feet, might feel weak, or have bad blood circulation. When this happens, we are advised to stop eating that kind of food, which will in turn heal their

Whether as sacrifice or in symbolism, food has played a major part in religion. Hinduism and Buddhism are the major religions followed in India, Thailand and China. Buddhism doesn’t have a specific set of rules regarding what can and can’t be eaten. Buddhism does have guidelines and principles by which its followers will live. The first law of Buddhism can be read as ‘do not harm’. A lot of Buddhists take this to be an instruction to follow a vegetarian lifestyle. They wouldn’t kill animals but may eat the flesh as long as the animal wasn’t killed for their benefit. Buddhists also believe that humans can be reincarnated as animals and vice versa; this is another reason for vegetarianism amongst Buddhists. In Hinduism their diet prohibits meat, fish, poultry and eggs. Hindus following the strictest diet also avoid garlic, onions, mushrooms, alcohol, tea and coffee, which all prevent the believer achieving a spiritual high. Some Hindus will eat meat but they are unlikely to touch beef. That is why it is said that in Hinduism the cow is sacred and has an important role in Hindu spiritual