Monday, February 3, 2014

What drives our food choices?


There are many factors that can drive our food choices. 
Let's take a look at these four factors: social, psychological, philosophical, and physical.

Social:  
Society puts a lot of pressure on us as to what we should eat, how much and what it will do for us. Everything is super sized these days, the bigger the better. But better for what? Have you ever said alright super size my meal for only $1.00 more? Did you look at the amount of calories, mainly empty ones, that you added to your days caloric intake? Teenagers especially feel peer pressure to eat what everyone else is eating, even when they know it is not what they should be eating. After all who wants to be eating a salad when everyone else is eating a big mac, french fries and a chocolate malt? Pre-planning what you are going to eat is a good idea before you are put into that situation, it can ease the pressure. Something as simple as going to a movie can bring pressure on you to over indulge. I have been called a "health nut" because of the way I choose to eat because society has been led to believe that empty calories are the best. Maybe it is time society did some rethinking about health over profit. As a society we need to get back to eating a meal together, not in our car, but can we do it?Can society again rethink our food choices, in a healthy direction?

Psychological:
There is a big part of choosing food that comes from psychological factors. For many of us the wrong foods are comfort foods. How many of you have gotten a reward of a cookie for doing something like making your bed or picking up your socks? I am guilty of giving rewards like that when our children were small. Or the smell of cinnamon rolls brings you back to your grandma's house?  Foods are triggers for happy memories and painful ones as well. Many people are emotional eaters, which is another psychological part of choosing the food we are going to eat. The challenge is finding out what and why the food triggers emotions and feelings. Once we figure that part out we will be able to make better choices emotionally.

Philosophical:
These choices are based on our cultural, ethical, religious beliefs. For some eating a cow is just fine and others you are not allowed to eat a cow. Are either of them wrong? No it is just their belief system of what foods are allowed and not allowed. Many food choices are based on what we have been brought up to believe is best. No one has a right to judge someone's choice, just as no one has a right to push their belief on someone. When you learn more about nutrition then you can rethink what you have been taught if you need to and make your own choices in what you will fuel your body with.

Physical:
We crave many foods because of all the additives that make them taste so good. Physically we desire the foods that are not good for us, that is until you reset your taste buds. Yes you can do it! I can personally testify to that. When I had went on my strict cancer diet I craved bad for me foods for a while but then that craving slowly went away. I ate a banana after quite some time without having been able to have one and did you know they taste like a candy bar when you get that sugar out of your body? Really! Try it, it does work! Physically we are slowly or in some cases quickly killing ourselves and our families. For the most part not intentionally. According to Joseph Cramer, "our nutritional demise is not only what we eat -- it could also be what we are not eating. The Western diet is famous for the processed foods that remove anything that is fibrous. I stand accused. I can't stand pulp in my orange juice -- Waa. But if one were to have three identical apples and eat one as a whole fruit, the other as apple sauce and the third as apple juice the blood sugar would get higher and higher as the fiber gets lower and lower. Maybe it is time that we eat the box and throw away the cereal" (Cramer, 2008). Instead of eating the box, start eating healthy foods and you will physically crave healthy foods.


Reference:

Joseph Cramer, MD Deseret,Morning News. (2008, Feb 02). Americans committing nutritional suicide with bad choices. Deseret News. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/351612928?accountid=32521 

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