Taking the consumption of Central Asian bread and the taboo on pork consumption as case studies, this article examines how similarities in dietary culture can often be a major factor in reducing the psychological distance between ethnic groups. However, the differences in dietary customs-through people's objective practices and subjective judgementscan also create a sychological gulf and a real distance between ethnic groups. This is because in human cultural practices diet is often made a symbol of the body-people imagine that similar forms of diet create a similar kind of body, while dietary difference creates bodily difference. Some dietary customs are deemed fundamental, and are incorporated into the cultural practice of an ethnic group; they are endowed with distinctive ethnic cultural connotations, and become symbolic marks that are transmitted and passed down and consolidate group membership internally and serve to fix boundaries externally. Through an examination of the dietary customs of Uygurs and Han, the article demonstrates that both groups have commonalities in the realm of dietary culture and exhibit mutual admiration and tolerance in this area: the notion that Han Chinese love eating pork is a fixed stereotype that does not reflect reality, or is an excessive simplification at the very least.