Outline And Evaluate The Fators Of Eating Behaviour Essay

“Outline and evaluate fators that affect eating behaviours.”
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.
One key factor which affects our food choices is our mood. It is generally accepted that food can be comforting when we feel upset and presents pleasurable feelings which we associate with cerain sugary foods, i.e. chocolate. It has been found through the work of a plethora of research that by comforting eating, individuals are able to increase their carbohydrate and sugar intake which brings the pleasure in eating such foods. Garg et al. (2007) found this theory to be fiting. By random selection, partcipants either wached Love Story to evoke a sad mood, or Sweet Home Alabama , to evoke a happy mood.Whilst atching th ilms in a group, they were givnclorie-free drinks and popcorn, which was pre-weighed. At the end
of the movies, participants indicated their assessment and rated their mood and the popcorn container was also weighed. The results found that films were successful in creating the desired emotions. This showed that people eat hedonistic food when sad in an attempt o return to a happier state. Although there was a difference in the amount of popcrn consumed, there was onl a 28% difference between both groups, meaning that there was a significant difference to make the theory completely accurate. However, the results do have strong reliability as the research used ojective measurements and a controlled experimental method, allowing the casualiy to be estabiled. Despite this though, as the films were quite familiar, participants may hae consumed popcorn due to anticipation/expectation rather than their actual mood state, showing that results may not actually be a true representation of what Garg set out to do, showing it may lack internal validity. In addition to Garg though, Wansink et al. (2008) also found supporting evidence for the theory. They found that when offered either hot buttered popcorn or grapes as they watched either an upbeat comedy or sad film, the 38 participants consumed 36% more popcorn whilst watching the comedy than grapes and thereforesuggested that people who was sad wish to jolt themselves out of their mood by eating a quick, indulgent, nice-tasting snack, whil those in a happy moo wish to extend this mood in the log-term by eating food with more nutritional value. With results similar to Garg, Wansink’s experiment can hep to show that there is a strong network of research to prove that this theory is correct. Also, because both pieces of research are contemporary, they can be applie to everyday life and are a true representation of today’s population, rather than evidence conducted many ears ago which may only explain wh individuals had certain food preferences a few years ago. However, one criticism is that the films may not have had the same effect on all participants. Although Wansink did ask indiviudals to report their mood after the films, the effect may not have ben the ame for everybody. For example, ome participants may not have seen the happy film articularly joyful. This is a problem as the research may not be measuring what it intedns to measure if mood was not always successfully manipulated and thu may reduce the internal validity. Nonetheless, these findings from both experiments do suggests there is evience that food influnces eating and therefore, supports the theory.
In addition to mood, cultural factors may also affect the eating behaviours of individuals. With cultural groups having different eating practices, these are transmitted to group members, usuallt via social learning, ad include th consumption of different types of food. Certain cultural practices can lead to retrictions, like the Jewsh not eating bacon, and cultural attitudes to the healt concerns which come with food can also vary eating behaviours. An example of research to support this is Lawrance et al. (2007). They used nationwide discussion groups to investigate the factors which affect food choices f ethinic minority females. Banglasdeshi and Pakistani females learned cooking skills from their close female family members and took pride in traditional cooking practices, but admitted they ate western junk food when they were restricted on time. They also noted that Zimbabwean women were not influenced by the wesern pressure to be slim, and this reflected in their eating practices. All women valued healthy eaing, but did not necessarily practice it, thus suggesting from the results that eaing behaviours are influenced by not only culture, but by time avlability and health also. However, as all the countries used were from eastern countries, not showing a variation of cultural groups and thus, showing that results may not be generalised to the whole population as they are all eastern countries. Furthermore, results may also not e generalised due to the fact that all participants were female showing that the results only reflect women’ attudes towards food, and therefore cannot be generalise to the male population. In addition to Lawrance’s work, Stefansson (196) found hat Copper Inuits were repulsed b the taste of ugar. They live in environments that isolated them from other people, on a diet of flesh and roots, having no experience of other foodstuffs. This suggests that cross-cutural preference for sweet-tasting foods may not exist. This supports the theory and Lawrance’s work as it shows that environment clearly has a role in determining the food preferences of individuals. If the attitudes to foods were innately within us (nature), then we would all hold the esire to eat the same foods. Hoever, both pieces of research clearly show that this is not the case and elp to anser the key debate to show the environment play a major influence as to whether indivuduals have certain food preferences.
Furthermore, socio-economic factors also play a key role as to whether indiviuals have certain eating behaviours. It is believed that families with a lower incomes tend to have a poorer diet because they not only hav a lower income to buy the more expensive healthy foods, but they also do not tend to have the education to know what foods contain the best vitamins for indiviuals. Xie et al. (2003) found that children and adolescents from higher0income familtes ate more healthily than those from lower-ncome householdsm consuming more polyunsaturated fats, protein, calcium and iron, as well aseating the recommended amount of dairy products. Ts suggests that income has a regulating effect on healthy eating. However this can only be generalised to children and teenagers as the study was only performed on people at that age. Also, as it is about family income, the results cannot show that the income s the only fctor which affects eating behaviours. By buying the food, the prents would obviously influence the behaviours of food because they would choose what the family ate showing that is the parents that create this eating behaviours, not the children themselves and thus showing that the results may lack some validity. Howver, as the results were found in 2003, they can be applied to today as food prices have not really changed and neither have food preferences across the country, showing that the results can be used to ustify eating behaviours in contemporary times, rather than by using outdated results giving the theor more support. Additionally, Stead et al. (2004) can also add to this. They found that the minority of ethnic goups that lved in the pporss socio-econic onditions, and had lower disposable icomes, had a poorer quality of diety. They also lacked cooking skills as they were removed from their ultural teaching influnces. This supports the theory that eating influences are due to a lack of education and income. However as the experiment was conducted on minority groups, there was not a large population for Stead to tet, showing that because there wa not enough evidence collected, the results cannot be generalised to many groups of people as most people can afford to have an education now and learn about what food is good for people, showing that healthy eting concerns clearly plays a key role too. However, like Xie, evidence s contemporary and therefore allows the research t e tken into more consideration a it is tken from a modern society, not from ancestral research. Also all experiments ere conducted at home as an observation, allowing indivudals to eat naturally and not perform in artificial setting swhich coul lead them to think they had to act in a certain way and thus, reduced demand characterstics, reflecting that the results clearly reliably support the theory that socio-economic factors affect eating behaviours.
Even though many studies aimed to watch eating behaviours of certain individuals, itt is clea that there are other factors which influence this.
Whether it be mood which encourages the idea of sugary foods or income which restricts certain foods from being bought, it is clear that all these factors have a clear effect on eating behaviours, having great vriations between individuals. Depending on socio-economic factors, depends on the greater the differences between certain individuals as these could really restrict eating behaviours and thus shows that it will never be clear what factor is the most influential, possibly, or most likely, being a mixture of them. I.e., if income is low and there is less disposable ncome, then it is more likely that individuals would hae a low mood and this having specific ating behaviours, reflecting why everyone may have their own distinct eating
behaviours.