Changes in nutritional values of selected traditional foods in cookbooks between 1970 and 2018: Borek

Traditional food is a food in national and local culture heritages transferred from generation to generation, which has similar feature even though distinguished by traditional composition, traditional ingredients, and type of production or processing. Significant points of traditional food are specific production, locality of the production the specific quality control systems operating for the production of the authenticity of their products. Cookbooks have been used as a resource for many studies such as determining portion size change, nutritional concerns and changes of meals, and examining the culture of societies. In this study, the most popular cookbooks of the period from the 1970s to 2018 are used to analyze the changes in nutritional values of traditional foods, and different types of boreks are used as cases. Each of the recipes according to years has been examined, and calories and nutritional values of the recipes were calculated by using National Food Composition Database (Turkomp) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). For each recipe, separate tables, containing nutritional and calorie values, were prepared. The reasons for the similarities and differences between these values were investigated. There is no visual relationship between the number of materials used or the total weight of recipes and the calorie changes occurring in the recipes, but the calorie differences are different depending on the type and quantity of materials used. In addition, a systematic increase or decrease in calorie values in 100 grams according to the years have not been observed. It is thought that the reason for the calorie changes occurring during certain periods may be due to periodic popular events such as fighting obesity in those years or due to socio-economic conditions. Key Words: Traditional Foods, Cookbooks, Eating Habits, Nutritional knowledge, Food composition databases, Borek