Eating habits are formed due to a range of external factors. For example, a person can be influenced by the eating culture of their family or the entire region they live in (“Module Notes: Eating Habits,” n.d.). There are also eating trends that can change the person’s attitude to food. However, it is important to discern the eating patterns created by trends and traditions from the habits that can make the body fit and healthy.
Trends and traditions are a popular cause of unhealthy eating habits. For example, advertisements represent food as the symbol of a particular lifestyle (Scott, 2017; McCarthy et al., 2017). Teenagers are often willing to consume unhealthy food because it seems “cool” or popular among their peers. For example, different snacks, chocolate bars, or soda are sometimes regarded as “cool” food, as opposite to vegetables and dairy products. It is important to understand that staying healthy is more valuable than creating some image.
Traditions play an important role in forming eating habits as well. For example, in the USA, people consume sufficient amount of food, especially rich in carbohydrates and fats. In the morning, many people tend to eat toasts with Nutella or jam, which contain a lot of calories and have a high glycemic index. A person consuming food which has a high glycemic index would become hungry soon, which may subsequently lead to obesity.
My biggest food craving is sweet food, as I like to drink sweet tea that is popular in the south of America, eat toasts with some chocolate spread, and order different desserts in the restaurants. Unfortunately, it is not a healthy habit which is aggravated by addictive mechanisms (Brewer, 2016). Sweet food releases “natural opioids which make it hard to resist the sweet treat” (Spencer, 2019, p. 6). That is why excessive consumption of sweets may result in addiction, and it is important to change such habits using various techniques. According to the Mayo Clinic (n.d.), one may utilize different methods to alter their eating behavior, such as the ABC, confrontation, or shaping approaches. Thus, changing eating habits to the healthier ones is important to stay sound, strong, and fit.
References
Brewer, J. (2016). A simple way to break a bad habit. YouTube. Web.
The Mayo Clinic. (n.d.). Ways to change unhealthy eating habits. Web.
McCarthy, M. B., Collins, A. M., Flaherty, S. J., & McCarthy, S. N. (2017). Healthy eating habit: A role for goals, identity, and self-control? Psychology & Marketing, 34(8), 772–785.
Module Notes: Eating Habits (n.d.). Web.
Scott, L. (2017). Food choice behaviour: Why clients are unable to easily change their eating habits. Journal of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society, 23(3), 136–139.
Spencer, H. (2019). Sugar: An essay on the impact of sugar on the society. Spencer-Pacific Scientific Institute.