Factors That Influence Food Choices

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Food choices are influenced by many factors, age, gender, friends, family, cultural background and where we live. Although the main purpose of food is to nourish the body, food means far more than that to many people. It can represent much of who and what we are. People bond and foster relationships around the dinner table and at celebrations with special meals and foods, such as birthday cake. Some people express their creative side by serving dinner guests, as well as expressing their awareness and appreciation for others. Some people also use food to help them cope with stress by overeating or depriving themselves. Food may also be used as a reward for accomplishing a specific goal. Consequently, what people eat can reveal much about who they are socially, politically and religiously.

Factors influencing food preferences include:

• Taste, texture and appearance.
• Economics - The cost of food affects what we eat.
• Our early experiences with food - Food preferences begin early in life and change as we are exposed to new people and places. As children, our choices were in the hands of our parents. However, as we get older, our experiences with new people and places increase, thereby broadening our food preferences and choices.
• Habits - Most of what we eat from a particular core group of foods. About one hundred items account for 75 percent of the foods most people eat. Having a narrow range of food choices provides us with security. For example, going to a particular fast-food restaurant provides common expectations and experiences. Many people also have the cooking habits of our mothers or grandmothers.
• Culture - Religious rules can affect food choices. For example, Hindus do not eat beef, and some Jewish people do not eat pork. The region that people are from can also affect eating behaviors. Swedish people would not eat an ear of corn, because it is considered food for hogs. In the United States, we don't normally eat insects, but many other cultures regard them as preferred foods. Culture can also dictate the times to eat and what to eat at certain meals.
• Advertising - To capture the interest of the consumer, food producers spend billions of dollars each year on advertising and packaging, both for food bought in grocery stores and restaurants. The power of persuasion is very strong, and so food producers and restaurants try to make their products as appealing as possible to consumers, even if that means making false claims.
• Social factors - Social changes have a big effect on the food industry. Our fast-paced society demands drive-through restaurants. Gas stations now have convenience stores and restaurants attached to them, so people can do one-stop shopping. Malls also cater to their customers with food courts offering a wide variety of foods.