Abstract

In this paper, we studied about food preferences of the educated Tharu and Buksa youth. 76 Tharu and 40 Buksa (total of 116) youth were interviewed for this study. At present, some Tharu and Buksas youth are abandoning their traditional food and rapidly embracing the eating of fast foods rapidly. Traditionally, Tharu and Buksa people were non-vegetarians. They also like milk and milk-products. Data collected shows that this trend has persisted with 92.24% young people being non-vegetarian whilst 7.76% young were vegetarians. Young females showed a propensity towards vegetarian food compared to their male counterparts, that is, 15% as against 3.45% respectively. Data collected further showed that. Tharu and Buksas youth studying in the cities like to eat fast foods in market. Chinese fast foods like Chowmin, Indian Dosa, Chat-Pakoda and other packed food were popular among these Tharu and Buksas young people. A maximum of 64.66% youth eat fast food one weekly, 18.10% do so twice or three times a week and 17.24% ate occasionally. The trend showed that more females eat fast foods than males.

Key-words: Tharu, Buksa, food, non-vegetarian, traditional, fast-food.