Homework Question on Personal Responsibility Surrounding Nutrition
Your identification of your personal beliefs about what is important to you takes into consideration family tendencies, societal norms, and cultural preferences. How do these factors influence your personal food choices? Discuss if these food choices contribute to or are a barrier to your health
Homework Answer on Personal Responsibility Surrounding Nutrition
Different personal backgrounds have contributed significantly to influencing personal food choices. The factors include the family tendencies, societal norms, and cultural preferences. Family tendencies have contributed towards influencing my personal food choices. Family is highly recognized as it contributes significantly towards the food decisions. Family acts as a source of encouragement to either make or sustain dietary change and adopt dietary strategies that can be accepted by them. Family tendencies to food and eating behaviors have hence impacted the food choice due to the great need to adhere with the family mode of eating and choice of food.
Societal norms play a significant role in determining the choice of food. Society influences the eating behavior of people either directly through buying food or indirectly through learning from the behaviors of peers. For instance, most of the food choices made are meant to help in maintaining the social class. Influence from society determines the choice of food consumed. These could be friends, co-workers, school mates and the family members. Food choice is influenced by social norms even when eating alone. This is because habits and attitudes develop through interacting with the society.
Cultural preferences contribute in leading to the differences observed in the routine consumption of certain foods. These differences are in either preparation or restriction from consuming specific food and hence affecting the choice of food. Cultural preferences hence affect the food choices since people adhere to their traditional meals when making food choices.