Preview

Factors Affecting Food Selection

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2043 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Factors Affecting Food Selection
1. Introduction
The purpose of this report is to analyse the 4 main types factors that affect the food selection of adolescents and how each of these factors affect their diets. As a result of examining various internet websites and books about this topic, this report describes the 4 types of factors that affect food selection and the factors that influence the food selection of teenagers the most.

Consuming food is vital for adolescents since they aren’t fully developed yet, and what they eat is influenced by various factors. The main types of factors are psychological, physiological, social, and economic factors, and each of them influence what choices people make when it comes to food. Over the past 20 years, teenagers have adopted the habit of consuming a lot of junk food, due to the influence of many economic, psychological, physiological and social factors. As time goes on, the factors that affect the food choices of adolescents may change.

Overview of social factors
Social factors that affect food selection refer to the cultures and societies that adolescents live in, along with how the interaction with other people greatly influence the food choices that they make. One of the reasons why social factors has a significant influence on adolescents is because their attitudes and habits relating to food usually develop through the interaction with their peers, friends and families. Social factors that have a great impact on the food selection of adolescents are the media, and their peers.

2.1 Peer Influences
A peer is a person that has the same social status, and is around the same age as another person. The influence of peers is the greatest in adolescence. the reason for this is because like fashion, trends come and go in the food industry. For adolescents, being ‘cool’ and being accepted among their peers is vital, so they usually follow the food trends that the majority of the group follow for that sake. Although, this causes them to disregard their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    During the early developmental years of life children are prone to varies eating habits that have adverse consequences when they are consuming too many of the wrong food groups. These youngsters find themselves eating more, exercising less, constantly tired, bored, and overweight. Many families are frequent fast food diners instead of enjoying a nutritious home cooked meal is a serious concern in our country today. It is convenient for a large amount of parents to make financial provision for their children to buy lunch at school rather than fix a lunch at home. More children live in a two parent household, which means there is less time for the stereotypical parenting duties such as making lunches and cooking dinner. Instead, these expenses are added to their monthly budget. Fast foods and restaurant meals exposes children more calories, higher levels of soaked fats, fat, and flavors that surpass the optional averages for a well life (St-Onge et al., 2003).…

    • 1493 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Reinaerts, E., Nooijer, J., Candel, M., & Vries, N. (2007). Explaining school children’s fruit and vegetable consumption: The contributions of availability, accessibility, exposure, parental consumption and habit in addition to psychosocial factors. Appetite 48:248-58. Retrieved from http://her.oxfordjournals.org/content/25/1/121.full…

    • 3691 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the essay “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko describes himself as a kid who would eat regularly at fast food restaurants until he got “lucky”. He argues that most teenagers eat fast food instead of healthy and nutritious food. I, on the other hand, had a very different experience as a child.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The only entity fast food restaurants desire is money. They do not care about health, weight, or medical problems. Fast food is everywhere, also “ there are more than 160,000 fast food restaurants in America. More than fifty million customers are served per day” (Zinczenko 464). These statistics are outrageous and embarrassing for Americans. The food these companies produce is horrible in nutrition and damaging for one’s health. Even though fast food is tempting, one should stay far away from it as possible. In David Zinczenko article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” he has his own personal experience as an example for people, specifically teenagers, to stay away from fast food. Although fast food produces delicious products, these products contain blinding nutrition facts, and the companies mainly target teenagers.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    How food relates to social determinants of health Social determinants of health are “the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age, and the systems put in place to deal with illnesses”. Food/nutrition therefore relates to the social determinates of health due to the fact that it has an effect on the circumstances in which one is born, as well as having effects on the circumstances in which one lives, works, and ages. And ultimately nutrition does indeed play a major role in dealing with illnesses. An example of how nutrition relates to the way in which one is born is that it plays a role in prenatal development and determining the development and growth of the foetus-whether this is healthy or not, as well as being…

    • 1507 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Freshman 15 Research Paper

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages

    I asked my friend Danny Trinh in the Worcester Dining hall, “Why do you eat Pizza and Fries often, when you know that it is unhealthy?” He replied, “That’s all they have.” He said, because of the disgusting food, such as the red bean burger, he began leaning towards the good tasting unhealthy food. So what influences young adults and their food choices? Hebden states, “Taste was the most important influence on food selection, followed by convenience (availability), cost, nutrition/health value, smell and stimulatory properties (alertness).” Students like to lean towards food that tastes the best, therefore ignoring the health aspects which can impact them long term. It can be concluded that services should provide low-cost nutritious food that tastes good.…

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Many children do not get the recommend amounts of fruits, juice, vegetable (FJV) and fat intake that meet the recommend guidelines. “Very little is known about ethical groups differences or social environmental influences on children’s food consumption” (Baranowski, 1997). Things in the environmental Influences that can affect children are Availability and accessibility, Parents influences, Peer influences, TV influences, ect.. All the ethnic groups comments were similar identifying that there is few ethnic difference with their social-environmental has on the influences of their children’s eating…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Socio-cultural issues also has a big impact on a person’s diet as the parents in the family is more likely to choose the food that will be cooked for dinner before the individual can choose what they want to eat in terms of food. This could be due to religious reasons as every culture has their own type of food they prefer to…

    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Food Desert Case Study

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. What is the potential relationship between not having fresh, nutritious and affordable foods and obesity among the youth?…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gibson and Wardle conducted a food preference study by observing the food choices made of children. Children naturally preferred more calorific foods, suggesting the food choices to be innate as children have not been exposed much to other influences such as social or cultural factors as other age groups. On the other hand fatty foods have been proven harmful if eaten in excess and therefore counters the claim that they are beneficial, as a diet on fatty foods would not be possible for survival. However, early humans did not live to the age of humans today and it is in the later age where diseases come as a result of excess fatty foods.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    These unhealthy choices made by schools are some that may affect the youth's’ wellness, health, and increase obesity. In a day, there are three main meals essential to maintain proper wellness; students spend…

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Don't Blame the Eater

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Many teenagers don’t have a choice but to eat fast food if their parents are never home to provide food for them or if they don’t know how to cook. This could very well lead to obesity and you would know from firsthand experience. When you were young your parents split up and you stated, “Lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut.” Sometimes teenagers can’t control what happens in their home and they have to do what’s most convenient for them to survive. This produced a connection with you and other teenagers who have to deal with the same problems.…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    People behave differently according to the situations and surroundings in their environment. Associated Content (2007) states that, “Persuasion, obedience, and conformity are the different kind of social influences. Persuasion works to persuade people to change their attitudes and behaviors. Obedience is the form of change in behavior when commanded by a higher authority. Conformity is when the behavior changes due to indirect social behavior”. Most situations change because of social situations and this can began at a very young age. People normally change to fit into different social sittings. Some people will say they smoke when they really do not just to fit in and not feel like an outcast. Some people will experiment with drugs because they do not want to called names or feel like they are not cool. Teenage drinking is another social influence this can be brought on by peer pressure and even a lack of parenting. In this paper we will look at an overall view of the influences and behaviors on a social level.…

    • 1163 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    There is huge debate as to which factors affect the eating behaviours of an individual. A key issue is whether our food choices are down to innate behaviours and our genetics or whether they are an outcome of the environment in which we are brought up in, such as our cultures and socio-economic circumstances.…

    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This report will discuss certain food types that are common for children and adolescents to eat and the different ways these foods can affect them. There are charts showing the increase of energy intake from these foods and how portion size makes a difference. Many different health problems this can affect will also be talked about. A few statistics will also be given concerning this problem. Different genetic and environmental factors concerning obesity will be discussed. What types of education are being done and what we can do better. The areas education can be most effective and changes Michelle Obama has help make concerning this…

    • 2277 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics