Social, psychological, philosophical, and physical factors that drive our food choices

Social, psychological, philosophical, and physical factors that drive our food choices

I grew up in Germany but my family is from the South. Although I was exposed to foods like Schnitzel, Bratwurst, and Onion Cake (don’t knock it until you try it), I do love ribs, baked macaroni and cheese, collard greens, potato salad, corn bread, etc. My parents, no matter how much I protested, always encouraged me to try different things outside of my culture. Naturally some things I liked, and somethings I didn’t. For example, when my dad got stationed in Okinawa, I got to try sushi for the first time. I loved it. However, when we went to France, I tried escargot (snails) and I’ll be honest, it didn’t taste bad, I just didn’t’ like the texture.

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 There are many factors that will determine our food choices. These factors include the cost of the food, how available certain foods are, personal food preferences, food allergies, habit, and health. If a person can’t afford certain types of food for example, eating healthy is expensive, this is a well-known fact. So, in order to feed a family of five, it may be more cost effective to purchase a bucket of KFC for $25 than going to the grocery store and buying the necessary items for dinner. Not to mention time is also a factor. I know I have battled coming home and cooking versus just grabbing something quick because I was tired. (This is where meal prep comes in handy, and I will talk more about that in another blog post)

Culture is another food influence. For example, if I say Italian, everyone will automatically associate it with pasta and pizza. If I say Mexican, tacos and burritos. In Germany, dinner is served with beer. Beer is not a drink for people to become belligerent and inebriated in Germany, it is more of a social custom. They even have “Kinder Bier” which is nonalcoholic beer for the children. When my dad was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, during test times, the Japanese children were encouraged to it fish heads. I heard that fish was brain food, but that was a little extreme for my taste!

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Another driving force on what we eat is how we feel mentally. During 2010, I suffered from depression. During this time, I would seek comfort from food. Unfortunately, I wasn’t making the best food choices. I was just trying to fill a void that I felt in my life. “There is growing evidence that food consumption has an influence on how we feel.” (Liu et al., 2007).  When someone is suffering from depression and use food for comfort they tend to crave more carbohydrate dense foods. The lack of the hormone serotonin causes depression.  “Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and is involved in the modulation of various aspects of mood and behaviors including depression, anxiety, and aggression.” (Liu et al., 2007) Those feel good carbohydrate/fat foods help increase the serotonin however also increase the likelihood of weight gain which can actually further one’s depression. I know that I had fallen into that cycle of eating because I felt bad and feeling bad because I was eating. Depression can have a huge influence on food choices. 

References

Liu, C., Xie, B., Chou, C., Koprowski, C., Zhou, D., & Palmer, P. et al. (2007). Perceived stress, depression and food consumption frequency in the college students of China seven cities. Physiology & Behavior, 92(4), 748-754. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.05.068

Sizer, F. & Whitney, E. (2017). Nutrition: Concepts and controversies (14th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.