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The Impact of Eating Behaviors on our Health Essay example

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Eating behaviour is a complex behaviour that involves a vast array of factors which has a great impact on the way we choose our meals. Food choice, like an other behaviour, is influenced by several interrelated factors. While hunger seems to drive our ways of food consumption, there are things outside of our own bodies that influence our food choices and the way in which we eat. The way we eat is controlled by and is a reflection of our society and cultures. I explore this idea through a food diary I created over a few weeks and the observations made by several anthropologists that I have studied.

The way in which we choose our foods can stem from events that occur during early childhood. When I lived in Jamaica as a child, I was …show more content…

I eventually grew to like the taste in later years. The incorporation of these childhood 'treats' came be seen in the food diary that I kept. They had become a familiar part of my diet as I began to demonstrate brand loyalty. I had a preference of KFC over Burger King and McDonalds, Pizza Hut over Pizza Pizza, etc.

A close examination of the food diary allowed people to see that our family tended to have large meals to together only on Sundays and sporadic, smaller meals on other days. This was partially due to culture and the socialization of food. Keeping up with the fast pace lifestyle created a different schedule types for the family members, hence, different eating patterns. Many people of the North American society still try to enforce family time where they eat together. They cling to the ideal that families eating together fixes personal and societal ills (smoking, obesity, children's vulnerability to drugs, etc.) and that it is a way to kindle children's success in school (Ochs, Elinor, and Beck 2013:49). During the week, snack items and small meals made up my diet. This was quick and easy food preparation was one of the issues, apart from schedules, that stopped our family from eating together. When families are at home other reasons stop them from eating together. Reasons such as convenient snacks in home creating individualized meals or snacks for family members and family dinnertime giving way to

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