Eating is an essential part of any being’s life. Every living thing on the Earth needs to eat to survive. Eating provides nutrients that the body needs to function and remain alive. Food has a large influence on the lives of those that must eat because if they do not eat, they will die. Though the types of food and how often food is consumed are often up for debate. There are many outside influences on a person’s eating habits other than the basic need to eat to survive. While eating healthy versus not eating healthy is potentially the most talked about topic involving in how a person eats, there are other topics related to eating habits. Eating food should be out of necessity only, because over eating or under eating can negatively impact a person’s life in more ways than just physically.
Snacking has, in recent years, become a popular eating past time all around the world. Instead of eating large meals three times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, people are more commonly eating smaller meals and eating snacks in between meals. Sometimes people are not even eating meals at all, instead they will eat several snacks until they are satiated for the time being. Snacks could be a rising preference because people are finding little to no time to sit down and eat a full meal.
Though some people are still finding a small amount of time to fit in meal times. Warde and Yates state that snacks are simple, easy foods that take almost no time to prepare or make and do not require social interaction or the use of utensils.(22) While snacks can be a quick and easy solutions, there is a benefit to eating meals. Eating meals allows for social interaction and time to sit down and de-stress from a busy work day or time pressures. Unfortunately, some people are limited to what types of food they can afford, therefore their eating habits are limited as well.
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Not everyone in this world has the option to eat whatever they want. Sometimes their food choices are limited to their low soci-economic position, which can lead to an unhealthy diet. Unhealthy diets can cause many issues including stress and sleeplessness and overtime it can lead to obesity and other illnesses. Unhealthy diets can also be caused by individuals being uneducated on healthy eating habits. According to Hunter, Hollands, Couturier, and Marteau interventions can be held to educate people on the benefits of a healthy diet, though this may only help those not of a low soci-economic position.
Though being educated about a healthy diet is not very helpful if it is not something one can afford to begin with. Proximity effect has an influence on a person’s choice of foods as well. The locations of foods in a grocery store impacts the person’s food choice and whether they can avoid impulse purchasing of other foods they see along the way. What a person chooses to eat, and their eating behaviors may be an extension of their identity.
A person’s eating behavior influences their identities. Bisogni, Connors, Devine and Sobal say that psychological, social, cultural, economics and biological forces influence a person’s food choices(1). These forces, through a person’s life experiences and events, have influenced their individual preferences and identities. What a person prefers to eat can influence how often they eat it and if they eat too much of it, especially if it is an unhealthy food choice, it could have a negative impact on their body. Mentally they would be stimulated and satiated by this meal choice, but it could impact their body in a different manner. If this food choice was paired with one or more healthy foods as a meal perhaps it would balance the There is another part of a person’s identity though that has a different impact on their eating behaviors.
Eating disorders have not only a bad impact of a person’s eating habits but on their overall quality of life. Not only can having an eating disorder negatively impact a patient’s physical state, but it can also impact the mental and social elements in their life.(Rie, Noordenbos, Furth 1511) All of these factors can lead to a poor quality of life, and not just in the short term but in the long term as well. Different types of eating disorders affect those who have them in different ways. Even those who have overcome their eating disorders still have a poorer quality of life than those that never had an eating disorder.
Researcher conducted that was by Rie, Noordenbos and Furths where 156 patients with eating disorders and 148 former eating disorder patients were given a generic health-related quality of life questionnaire. A normal reference group was also given this questionnaire. The results showed that compared to the normal group, those with eating disorders were found to have significantly poorer qualities of life. The former patients also had a poorer quality of life than the normal group.(1511) Those with eating disorders might only be eating enough to sustain a semi-healthy status but it is not enough to satisfy their body’s needs.
How and what a person eats dictates how well their quality of life is. If they are only eating enough to sustain their body’s needs, then their quality of life is poor. If they eat too much and not healthy types of food, then their quality of life is also very poor. People need to be educated about how they can eat healthy, and that’s whether they are on a tight budget or not. They need to pick snack foods that are at least healthy to eat in between meals and not use unhealthy snacks as a means to not eat a proper meal due to time issues. People are typically responsible for their own health and how they eat but if they are not educated enough or have eating disorders then it is the rest of the worlds job to help and educate them so they can have a better quality of life.
