The causes of obesity are well documented, but the question remains: what is causing your overeating? Consider these factors:
Physical factors Influence quality and variety of food. Explain how physical environmental factors affect the quality and variety of food. Consider these factors:
The environment: Does the food you buy or consume contribute to your weight problem? This includes a change in work style and environment, such as working shift, not eating meals in restaurants and other eating out venues, unhealthy eating habits, smoking and drinking alcohol.
Food availability: Do you get enough fresh, nutritious food? If you don’t get enough, what are you able to eat? If you’re not getting enough nutrients, it’s going to affect your health and the quality and variety of your food.
Psychological factors Influence food choices. You have probably heard the expression “your genes determine your destiny”, but now you know why that’s true.
Psychological factors Influence food consumption patterns. When you consume unhealthy foods, it affects the quality and variety of your food consumption. But if you make healthy food selections, it will improve your health.
Environmental factors Influence your body’s response to certain food types. When you eat food with high fat content or low fibre content, the body has more of its energy stored as fat. If you eat food that’s rich in fibre, you may feel full earlier and avoid overeating later on.
Consider all the factors above and ask yourself the following questions. How would your eating style be different if you could eat as much or as little food as you want?
What about diet food: would you eat more of it, less of it, or about the same amount of food? Or would you eat the same amount of it but eat it in different ways? Or would you eat differently?
How will you change your food choices to suit the changes in your lifestyle? Will you stick to your current food choices, or will you try new ones?
Is your behaviour changing to suit the changes in your lifestyle? Are you eating more or less frequently? or less often? Are you consuming more, less or the same amount of calories?
What are the benefits of eating healthier food? Are there any health benefits you can enjoy from eating this food?
How will you make food choices? What are the rewards you get from eating healthy foods?
Will you experience better eating relationships, healthier relationships and more energy? Or will you just feel like eating more? Do you find that you eat better and get better results when you choose the right food?
How can you use research on the topic to understand other people’s attitudes and behaviour? What do people who eat healthy tend to say?
What is the most important aspect of changing your eating habits? Which one does it change most often? And which one should you work on the most?
Make a list of all the factors that influence food decisions. and then use this list to guide your research. You’ll learn that making healthy food choices is a major factor, although many of these factors can be changed without having to change your eating habits.
The diet that you choose to follow is a major contributor to your health. If you follow a diet that’s high in fibre, fruits and vegetables, and low in saturated fats, your chances of developing heart disease decrease. You may also lower your risk of stroke, diabetes and cancers.
You can choose a healthy food choice for your children by choosing a low-fat, low-fiber and high-fibre food. A good example would be vegetables.