Factors that Influence Our Eating Habits

Multiple new pieces of research show eating habits determine our mental and physical health. They craft our personality, but what are the factors that manipulate our eating habits?

Why do we prefer the food we eat and not anything else? These elements go beyond our preferences of taste only. Let’s find out the causes and how they influence our eating habits.

1. Psychological Reasons

According to the American Psychology Association, anxiety disorders can lead to eating disorders and related thoughts and emotions. One can start eating more or less food during the depression episode, thinking it may give them some kind of relief. Just like some individuals like to shift their focus from anxiety to life through work out or talking to friends, people also tend to eat their favorite food, it is called ‘food-mood’ sometimes.

Recent research on the same area concluded that 48.5% of the people ate because of loneliness, 53% because of nervousness, 62.1% ate for not having control, and 53.8% intake food till they are full, while 59.1% eat because of boredom.

2. Medical/Health Factors

A lot of us restrain from a wide range of food because of the given health condition we have. A health-related crisis like allergies, IBS, any kind of chronic illness, blood sugar, or cardiac problems can manipulate our food and eating schedules as well.

Medications also restrict patients from intaking a lot of food, and sometimes, these medics lead to anxiety that alters the entire food pattern.

3. Abnormal Sleep Patter

How much you sleep affects your food preferences a lot. If you haven’t been sleeping peacefully on your usual routine, your stomach can get disturbed or bloated. Conclusively, you cannot eat anything you want at this point. On the contrary, an excess of sleep may also revamp your eating habits.

4. Socio-economic Factors

What we eat also depends on how much we are willing to spend on it. People with low income cannot afford restaurants and exotic grocery items or rich organic stuff; hence, they end up eating low-quality food. However, if one has enough fortune, one can choose from a diverse variety and eat fancy and quality food.

5. Political Reasons

This might sound controversial to some, but the political circumstances of a country can leave dire effects on a person’s eating habits. If the price goes high, people can no longer afford the same product they used to and, in some lucky scenario, the price goes down, everyone has equal access to the food they need or want to intake.

6. Religious Elements

Believe it or not, even in the 21st century, religion plays a pivotal role in the food preferences of masses as Muslims avoid a lot of food because they are not Halal. Alcoholic beverages are discouraged in Seventh-day Adventists, Hindus don’t eat beef, and an overwhelming majority of Jews choose Kosher food only.

Apart from the reasons mentioned above, there could be a lot more like environment, family traditions, and peer pressure that influence our eating habits.