What are some interesting cultural food taboos?
One example would be the American taboo on eating cockroaches (which is surely part of a more general taboo on eating insects and arachnids). Elsewhere this is not necessarily the case. In Oaxaca and other parts of Mexico, for example, grasshoppers are eaten with relish, as are a number of other insects (witness the agave worm found in bottles of some tequilas). There also seems to be an American taboo, not observed by all Americans of course, on eating horse meat, and all the while America has been the largest exporter of horse meat for food to other parts of the world. Another example of a food related taboo would be the American stricture that after eating one should wait 20 minutes to half an hour before going swimming (to avoid) cramping up and drowning. A somewhat similar practice is found in the Dominican Republic, where following a meal one is not supposed to engage for a while (perhaps half an hour to an hour) in most any activity (including sleeping, sex, showering, running o
