(EFC) Exploring Food Choices Module Overview

Exploring Food Choices Module Overview

Introduction

Factors that influence your food preferences, food choices, and eating habits include culture, resources, food availability, and knowledge. Appetite, hunger, and the sensory qualities of food affect your desire and need to eat. When entering the industry of food, nutrition and wellness, it is important to be aware of the various influences that dictate food choices. Whether you are a dietitian, chef, or food service worker, knowing why consumers buy the products they buy and eat the food they eat is crucial to your career. In addition, in order to be an informed consumer, it is critical to have the knowledge to read food labels and understand what you are reading. In this module, you will explore the influences that outside sources have on the products they buy. You will also learn how the food industry markets certain foods in order to encourage consumers to buy their product. You will learn that physical activity and healthful foods are a big part of a healthy lifestyle.

Eating the right balance of a wide range of foods provides most people with the energy and nutrients that they need to stay healthy.  A balanced diet, together with regular physical activity, can help people to maintain a healthy weight and may reduce their chance of developing diet related illnesses, such as obesity.

It is important to recognize the factors that influence your food choices. The key determinant for eating is of course hunger, but what we choose to eat is not determined solely by physiological or nutritional needs. Food choices for a balanced diet depend on many factors. People's food choices and eating patterns differ for many reasons. It is important to recognize the factors that influence your food choices. A factor is an element that contributes to a particular result.

Essential Questions

• How do physical factors influence food choices and quality of diet?
• How do emotional factors influence food choices and quality of diet?
• How do psychological factors influence food choices and quality of diet?
• How do intellectual factors influence food choices and quality of diet?
• How do spiritual, religious, cultural and family customs influence food choices and quality of diet?
• How do government and legislation influence food choices and quality of diet?
• How do economic factors influence food choices and quality of diet?
• How do environmental factors influence food choices and quality of diet?
• What are the lifelong effects of nutrition choices?

Key Terms

1. Appetite - a natural desire to satisfy a bodily need, especially for food.
2. Culture - shared beliefs, values and behaviors of a group of people.
3. Flavor - the sensory impression of food or other substance, and is determined primarily by the chemical senses of taste and smell.
4. Hunger - the physical need for food.
5. Lifestyle - how you live your life and everything you do.
6. Nutrient requirements - the minimum amounts of nutrients necessary to meet an organism's need for maintenance, growth, reproduction, or work.
7. Nutrients - a substance that provides nourishment essential for growth and the maintenance of life.
8. Papillae - small structures on our tongues that help us to determine whether we taste something as sweet, salty, sour, or bitter.

[CC BY 4.0] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION