Food choice, just like any other intricate human behavior, is usually influenced by numerous interrelated factors. The major driver for eating is obviously hunger and satiety, however, what we choose to eat is not solely determined by our physiological and nutritional needs but also because of our psychological drive. There are some foods that you feel that you just do not like them; with no good reason. It is amusing how people never bother to analyze biologically what they eat and probably get to know its content. Eating through the Phyla is an interesting topic whereby, we try to classify what we eat in real life. Which kingdom and phyla does your favorite dish come from? If you went for a trip and found people eating foods from phylum Chordata, for instance frogs or crocodile meat, would you join them? You will realize that some phyla are usually more exploited for human consumption while others are shunned away. In addition, some phyla are considered delicacies for prestige, this may be because of factors such as lack of availability of the species to be used in making the meal, for example a dish of Mollusca or Crustacea.
A greater understanding of the composition of what type of food we eat is vital, given the preference for our daily dietary change. The diversity of life is made more lively when we consider the combination of kingdoms and phyla that make up our meals. For instance, consider enjoying yourself with a piece of bread and a cup of yoghurt. The breed is derived from wheat, which is in Kingdom Plantae and baked with yeast from the kingdom Fungi in phylum Ascomycota. On the other side youghurt is fermented milk from a cow which is in kingdom Animalia. Therefore in one big bite of bread and a gulp of yoghurt, you would be eating more than four phyla. Japanese and Chinese cuisines are recognized as the foods that contains more phyla than any other types of foods. They usually consist of seaweeds from phylum Protista and sea cucumber which is a member of the phylum Echinodermata . However, there are foods from certain phyla that I consider very strange and weird but still remains the favorite option for a certain group of people. Despite the much praise about its high level of protein content, I still wouldn’t dare eat a delicacy from phyla Anthropoda. Most people freak out at just the sight of scorpions and spiders but in places like Thailand, it is not uncommon to see merchants selling fried grasshoppers, spiders and scorpions along the roads. This practice of eating insects is known as entomophagy and I perceive it as one of the strangest phyla one would eat from.
In conclusion, ‘eating through the phyla’ is basically an interesting way by which we combine different phylum to make our favorite meals. It deeply analyzes the meals that we eat. Eating behavior is complex and usually leads us to an array of choices that should be analyzed critically. Some core values of Saint Leo university are in a way related to this topic. The core values of respect and responsible stewardship are depicted when human beings avoid to kill and eat some of the species from certain phyla that are more closely related to them. Many people find it unethical to kill any animal but they do not hesitate about killing a plant or fungi.
References
Brüssow, H. (2007). The quest for food: A natural history of eating. New York: Springer.
