Description
Welcome to the world of nutrition. Although you may not always have been aware of it, nutrition has played a significant role in your life. And it will continue to affect you in major ways, depending on the foods you select.
Every day, several times a day, you make food choices that influence your body’s health for better or worse. Each day’s choices may benefit or harm your health only a little, but when these choices are repeated over years and decades, the rewards or consequences become major. That being the case, paying close attention to good eating habits now can bring you health benefits later. Conversely, carelessness about food choices can contribute to many chronic diseases ◆ prevalent in later life, including heart disease and cancer. Of course, some people will become ill or die young no matter what choices they make, and others will live long lives despite making poor choices. For the majority of us, however, the food choices we make each and every day will benefit or impair our health in proportion to the wisdom of those choices.
Although most people realize that their food habits affect their health, they often choose foods for other reasons. After all, foods bring to the table a variety of pleasures, traditions, and associations as well as nourishment. The challenge, then, is to combine favorite foods and fun times with a nutritionally balanced diet. Food Choices
People decide what to eat, when to eat, and even whether to eat in highly personal ways, often based on behavioral or social motives rather than on an awareness of nutrition’s importance to health. Many different food choices can support good health, and an understanding of nutrition helps you make sensible selections more often. Personal Preference As you might expect, the number one reason people choose foods is taste they like certain flavors. Two widely shared preferences are for the sweetness of sugar and the savoriness of salt. Liking high-fat foods also appears to be a universally common preference. Other preferences might be for the hot peppers common in Mexican cooking or the curry spices of Indian cuisine. Some research suggests that genetics may influence people’s food preferences.1 Habit People sometimes select foods out of habit. They eat cereal every morning, for example, simply because they have always eaten cereal for breakfast. Eating a familiar food and not having to make any decisions can be comforting. Ethnic Heritage or Tradition
Among the strongest influences on food choices are ethnic heritage and tradition. People eat the foods they grew up eating. Every country, and in fact every region of a country, has its own typical foods and ways of combining them into meals. The “American diet” includes many ethnic foods from various countries, all adding variety to the diet. This is most evident when eating out: 60 percent of U.S. restaurants (excluding fast-food places) have an ethnic emphasis, most commonly Chinese, Italian, or Mexican.
Social Interactions Most people enjoy companionship while eating. It’s fun to go out with friends for pizza or ice cream. Meals are social events, and sharing food is part of hospitality. Social customs invite people to accept food or drink offered by a host or shared by a group.
Availability, Convenience, and Economy People eat foods that are accessible, quick and easy to prepare, and within their financial means. Today’s consumers value convenience and are willing to spend more than half of their food budget on meals that require little, if any, further preparation.2 They frequently eat out, bring home ready-to-eat meals, or have food delivered. Even when they venture into the kitchen, they want to prepare a meal in 15 to 20 minutes, using less than a half dozen ingredients and those “ingredients” are often semiprepared foods, such as canned soups. This emphasis on convenience limits food choices to the selections offered on menus and products designed for quick preparation. Whether decisions based on convenience meet a person’s nutrition needs depends on the choices made. Eating a banana or a candy bar may be equally convenient, but the fruit offers more vitamins and minerals and less sugar and fat.