Personal preference
One reason people choose certain foods is that they like certain flavours. Two widely
shared preferences are for sweetness of sugar and the tang of salt. Other preferences
might be for hot pepper or the curry spices especially among the Indians.
Habit
Some people select certain foods out of habit. They eat cereal every morning for
breakfast. Eating a familiar food and not having to make any decisions can be
comforting.
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Ethnic heritage and tradition.
Ethnic heritage and tradition are among the strongest influences on food. People eat
the foods they grew up eating. Every country and every region of the country has its
own typical foods and ways of combining foods into meals.
Social interaction
Food signifies friendliness. Meals are social events, and the sharing of food is part of
hospitality. Social customs also compel 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.
Emotional comfort
Some people eat in response to emotional stimuli. For example some people eat to
relieve boredom or depression or to calm anxiety. Eating in response to emotions can
easily lead to overeating and obesity.
Values
Food choices may reflect people’s religious beliefs, political views, or environmental
concerns. For example, many Christians forgo meat during Lent, the period prior to
Easter. People may buy vegetables from the local farmers, market because they cost
less not in shillings but in terms of fuel and environmental pollution. Consumers may
also select foods based on the packages they come in, wanting to avoid containers that
cannot be reused or recycled.
Physical appearance of an individual
Sometimes ideals of body image influence a person’s food choices. The fashion and
movie industries have defined what people believe to be the ‘ideal’ body- an
excessively thin body for women, an excessively muscular body for men. Whereas
other people see thinness in women as a sign of malnutrition, our society today values
feminine thinness, equating it with youth and beauty. Both men and women therefore
select or avoid foods that they believe will improve their physical appearance.
Nutrition
Finally, a valid reason to choose foods is that they will benefit health. Recently, the
nutritional value of food has become more influential in many consumers, food
choices. Some people make food choices to avoid illness, others to improve their
physical well-being and appearance. Food manufacturers have responded to scientific
findings linking health with nutrition by offering an abundant selection of grocery-
store foods and beverages advertised as low-kilocalorie, low-cholesterol, low-fat, no-
fat, low-sodium, sugar-free, caffeine-free, high-fiber, and calcium-enriched.
Consumers welcome these new health promoting foods into their diets.
Diet planning principles
Diet planners have developed several ways to select foods. Whatever plan or
combination of plans they use, they keep in mind the following six basic diet planning
principles.
Adequacy
An adequate diet should provide enough energy and enough of all the other nutrients
to meet the needs of healthy people. For example, a person whose diet fails to provide
enough iron-rich foods may develop the symptoms of iron deficiency anaemia. The
same is true for all other nutrients.
Balance
This entails providing foods of a number of types in proportions to each other, such
that foods rich in some nutrients do not crowd out of the diet foods that are rich in
other nutrients. The art of balancing the diet involves using enough of each type of
food but not too much of each.
Calorie (energy) control
This principle involves the management of food energy intake. The key to controlling
energy intake is to select foods of high nutrient density.
Nutrient density
Part of the secret to eating well without overeating is to select foods that deliver the
most nutrients for the least energy. Nutrient density is a measure of the nutrients a
food provides relative to the energy it provides. The more nutrients and fewer
kilocalories, the higher the nutrient density.
Moderation
Foods rich in fat and sugar provide enjoyment and energy, but relatively few
nutrients. In addition, they promote weight gain when eaten in excess. A person
practicing moderation would eat foods rich in fat and sugars only on occasion and
would regularly select foods low in fat and sugar, a practice that automatically
improves nutrient density. The principle of moderation involves providing enough but
not too much of a dietary constituent.
Variety
A diet may have all the virtues described above and still lack variety, if a person eats
the same foods day after day. People should vary their choices within each class of
foods from day to day, for at least three reasons. First, different foods in the same
group contain different arrays of nutrients. Second, no food is guaranteed entirely free
of constituents that, in excess, could be harmful. Third, as the adage goes, variety is
the spice of life.
Titany answered the question on November 5, 2021 at 07:25