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The steady increase of incidences of illness which are related to nutritional and dietary habits and food intake reach an alarming stage. Healthy nutrition becomes an important issue and its social and societal dimensions are the concern of sociologists. This book aims at broadening our knowledge and understanding of social and cultural effects of food consumption. Hopefully, it would help promoting healthy and dietary awareness. We are witnessing great and various social and cultural changes which become global phenomena and changes in food nutrition and dietary habits are not an exception. We can t ignore the latter and its impacts and effects on our health. In reality nutrition and food intake is health or sickness, illness or remedy. Understanding the changes in nutrition and dietary habits becomes an academic necessity. Not only that put also we have to put in our consideration it is a very complicated issue and part of the human s social and cultural setting and making. This book tries to raise more questions about dietary habits and nutrition rather than giving answers. Also it touches and tackles the problem from sociological perspective focusing on Saudi Society s case.

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Dr Latifah is an Associate professor of medical sociology, teaching atsocial studies department, King Saud University, Riyadh. She has aMPhil. and a PhD. from Hull University, UK. Her interests in socialresearches include: women and childrens rights in Saudi Arabia, dietand dietary habits and factors influencing the Saudi family lifestyle.

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