Since nutrition and illness go hand in hand, it should be obvious and easy to make proper nutritious choices at meal times. However, considering the prevalence of overweight and obese people, clearly always making proper food choices does not happen as often as it should. So, if what a person eats has so much impact on their health, why do people choose to eat unhealthy things? Unfortunately, for many people, how healthy a food is for their body is not the only determining factor they have when picking what to eat at meal times. For many people, food is not seen simply as something to fuel the body throughout the day. Rather there are many factors driving how people eat including social, psychological, philosophical and physical.
There are many social factors that can influence food
choices. Sharing food with others, eating to celebrate special occasions or
participating in cultural traditions involving food, social pressures and
settings play a large role in food choices. A birthday celebration at the
office brings pressure to eat cake and ice cream or else being questioned on
why a person isn’t participating. For some cultural traditions, taking the last
of a food item is seen as rude whereas for other cultural traditions not
cleaning a plate can be seen as equally rude. The pressure to not offend
someone offering food can cause someone to eat something they had not
originally planned to eat. Other times simply wanting to be connected to others
can cause someone to make different food choices than they normally would,
whether they be healthier or unhealthier.
Stress, mood and food aversions are some possible
psychological factors that impact food choices. Stress induced food decisions
can come about because of being stressed over weight, or because stress can
impair appetite. (European Food Information Council, 2005) Stress and mood can
also influence a person to make choices that they find comforting instead of
choices that would ultimately be healthier. Depression and PMS can also
influence food cravings. Food aversions can directly influence food choices,
whether because the aversion is from being force fed something specific as a
child, or because the food caused one to get ill off of it in the past.
For some people, eating animals, or anything made from
animals is seen as inhumane. People have personal philosophical reasons for why
they choose the foods they choose. Vegetarians do not eat meat, pescetarians do
not eat meat but they eat fish, and vegans abstain from all products that come
from any part of an animal including items like eggs and honey. While some
people choose to become a vegetarian because they believe it is a healthier
diet, for most, the cruelty animals go through to become food for humans is too
great for their conscience to bear. Philosophical choices drive food choices,
not from a place of satisfaction but from an inherent personal belief.
A big factor that drives food choices is the physical
factor. This includes accessibility to foods. Some areas, referred to as “food
deserts”, there is little to no access to “affordable and nutritious foods”.
(Sizer & Whitney, 2014, p. 599) Time of the year, transportation costs and
location all play a role in what a person can choose to eat. The ability to get
to a store providing cost effective, and nutritious food can determine what
kind of food choices a person makes. The quicker and easier it is to get ahold
of food, the more likely the person is going to make that choice. Personal time
is an important factor here since those who live where it is difficult to get
good food may also have a harder time prioritizing their time to the task of
meal planning and grocery shopping.
Although the main factor driving food choices should be
health, there are other, very real reasons why people choose their foods. These
factors can drive a person to make both positive and negative food choices.
Whether the factors be social, physical, psychological, or physiological, there
are other factors besides just health that drives people to make food choices.
References
European Food Information Council. (2005).
The determinants of food choice. Retrieved from
http://www.eufic.org/article/en/expid/review-food-choice/
Sizer, F. S., &
Whitney, E. N. (2014). Nutrition: Concepts & controversies.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
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