On Friday, August 5, 2016 at 12:12:36 AM UTC-10, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> On Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 4:59:28 PM UTC-4, dsi1 wrote:
>
> > A guy from a hundred years or more ago would probably plotz if he could get his
> > hands on a Happy Meal or a Hot Pocket.
>
> Well, yeah. We're genetically programmed to prefer fat and sugar.
>
> > The reality is that foods in the era before refrigeration, preservatives, and
> > modern processing, were more dangerous - the Jews and Muslims knew this and
> > made certain foods and practices taboo.
>
> Although it's a happy coincidence that Kashrut and Halal regulations
> make food somewhat safer (and may have actually developed through trial
> and error--mainly error), their main result was to differentiate who
> was in the tribe and who was out of the tribe. Many of the taboos
> in Kashrut have nothing to do with food safety. For example, eels are
> no more or less safe than carp, yet because they have no discernible
> fins or scales, are forbidden.
>
> Cindy Hamilton

Many restrictions on foods and practices were meant to differentiate between groups and classes. OTOH, the foods of the past could kill you. The taboos that were put in place were a practical solution to this problem. It has also been suggested that food sustainability account for some taboos i.e., the raising of a pig or a cow tends to cost a lot in terms of resources.

In the modern age, the idea has been put forth to start a religious order with a tradition of taboos dealing with the long term storage of nuclear waste. Religious traditions, it seems, have a longer lifespan than generational memory and traditions.