Our Food Habits

Our Food Habits

• Introduction

As you know how the foods you eat become a part of you and you know how to assess nutritional status. When you carried out dietary evaluation, you must have found some whose food intake was not satisfactory, and needed to be modified. You may have noticed that food intake is related to food habits. Habit is a powerful force in deciding what you eat. We tend to eat according to our set food habits and like all habits these may be good or poor. Let us understand how food habits are formed so that we can take appropriate measures towards building good food habits.

 

• Formation Of Food Habits

Your food habits are affected by a number of factors. Some of these are dictated by the region and community you belong to while others are personal in nature.

Regional And Community Variations: Food habits are affected by food production and supply. For example, Rice is the staple food in the West and South of India while Jowar is the staple on the Deccan Plateau and Wheat in the North. Secondly the amounts and kinds of foods you eat depend on the money that one can spend for food. Thirdly, your family eating pattern is dictated by the geographic region, religion, community and family beliefs and practices developed over several generations.

You may know that in India certain communities are vegetarians and others non-vegetarian. You may have observed that even non-vegetarians may abstain from meat or fish on Mondays, Saturdays or Tuesdays due to religious reasons. Besides these, a large number of non-vegetarians in India may rarely include meat in their diet due to its high cost. The part of the country you belong to affects your eating habits. In the coastal regions, people use fish. In Punjab and Bengal, milk production is high, and you find that it is an essential part of their food pattern, e.g. Punjabis use a large amount of milk and lassi while Bengalis include sweets made from milk.

You find that the Pulse, the Vegetables and Fruits you habitually eat are those which are part of your regional dietary pattern. Even when you move to other regions for work or business, you tend to retain a large part of your food habit heritage. For example, Tamilians residing in Bombay or Calcutta retain their food pattern which includes rice, sambar made from Tur Pulse, and Vegetables such as Ash Gourd, Amaranth, etc. A Punjabi, in a similar situation, would include wheat preparation, Rajamah, Palak and Peas. You may realize that from the nutritional point of view it makes little difference whether the leafy vegetable is Amaranth or Palak. Thus all regional patterns can meet the nutritional needs of people if sufficient food from each group is included. The particular food chosen and the way it is prepared and seasoned is a matter of your own choice. Your social customs about when and with whom and what you can eat, will affect your exposure and hence your acceptance pattern.

Personal Factors: On the personal level, your attitudes may be modified by the atmosphere in which you eat. A happy atmosphere or an unhappy one will affect your reactions to food and eating. You have your own personal response to the taste of foods. You may like pungent foods or acid foods while your friends may prefer mild or astringent foods. Lastly, your selection of foods may be based on the knowledge of food values. These basic influences affect your food habits as you tend to adopt the food practices of your family.

Other Influences: There are other influences that modify our food habits. For example, during the Second World War, Rice, Wheat, Jowar and Maize were distributed through the ration shop. As a result, people who were used to a single cereal diet learnt to eat a multi-cereal diet. When you move away from your region for education or work, you are exposed to new foods and your eating pattern is modified. Travelling within your food region and outside also influences your food habits. Though food habits are affected by many influences, individual food intake is dependent on personal preferences which are an important factor in deciding your nutritional status.

 

• Factors Affecting Food Acceptance

You may have noticed as you tried to collect information about food intake that each person has a pattern of eating. Each one eats certain foods and may not eat others for a variety of reasons. The reasons may have little relation to the foods.

Favorite Foods: Your favorite foods may have been made for you by a loving relation or may be associated with a happy company of relatives or friends. Perhaps your favorite Shreekand-Puri may have been served on your birthday; you may associate Laddu with the Diwali festival and Gujias with Holi frolics. You may like some foods because your mother made these very tasty. Mangoes may remind you of an enjoyable visit to your favorite aunt. If you could not have particular foods for some reasons, it can affect your good habits. Do you have a special preference for Gulab Jamuns now, because you could not afford it when you were young? If you analyze your attitude to foods you may gain a new understanding of your food habits.

Food Rejected: Your eating pattern reflects the foods accepted and also those rejected. As your food habits are being formed, there are positive as well as negative influences. If leafy vegetables served at your home were overcooked, olive-green and stringy, you may develop a dislike for leafy vegetables. You may dislike foods that you were made to eat when you were sick or unhappy. Do you remember your first day in the hostel or a new place? You were so lonely that you could not eat the meal, though you were hungry. Trying to understand the reasons for your likes and dislike makes a fascinating study.

Try to analyze your attitudes towards the foods in each category, assess how these affect your nutrition and what you can do to modify it, if necessary.

Food Associations: Food habits begin to form almost as soon as the baby is born. When you feed a baby when it is hungry, it has happy associations with food and people. If the child is forcibly fed when it is not hungry, it is like to have adverse associations with food. As children grow up, some parents use food as reward or as a means of discipline. For example, chocolates are given as a rewards and favorite foods are withheld as a punishment. This result in confusing the child about the rational place of food in his\her well-being. The child may learn to use food acceptance or rejection to get attention. Thus when you use food in ways which have no relation to their basic function, you encourage development of poor food habits. As you know food is basic need for life and health. if you retain this focus you can help the child to develop good habits.

 

• Creating Good Food Habits In Children

You must be wondering why we should worry about the children’s food habits. There are many reasons. As you remember, children will grow and develop to their full potential, both physically and mentally, only if they eat the right kinds and amounts of food. What you eat as an adult depends a lot on the eating habits you formed as a child. As you grow up you get used to eating foods made in a certain way and without realizing it develop a preference for it.

In childhood parents are your models. You tend to copy whatever your parents do. Food is no exception. There are parents who send their children to the best school but unknowingly set a poor example by practicing poor food habits. Children learn from parents how to enjoy a wide variety of foods and be healthy. If you are a parent, setting a good example in food selection is as important as giving him the opportunity for good education.

School-Age Children: Once the child leaves home, his/her choice is influenced by friends, teachers and many others. Quite often your child comes home and asks, “Can I have a Dosa in my lunch box? I liked the Dosa my friend Mani brought to school yesterday“. Thus you find that his food world is enlarged.

You must pay special attention to help school-age children retain the good habits formed in early childhood. Once the child enters school, your attention is diverted to books, uniforms, etc., and food takes a back seat. The school schedule affects their food habits. You tend to serve breakfast and lunches in a hurry. You pack concentrated sweets or fried snacks if you give a packed lunch. Having learnt about children’s needs for growth in Nutrition Through The Life Cycle – Preschool Age you will realize that the child does not get the quantity and quality of foods needed by eating such snacks.

With a little pre-planning you can alter the schedule to ensure that the child has time for a proper breakfast and has packed lunch which meets her/his needs. If you had developed a habit of meeting your food needs in the school/college years, you are likely to retain these through adult life.

 

• Convenience Of Food Preparation

You must have observed that a lot of emphasis is placed on convenience of food preparation in recent years. This has affected our food habits to a large extent. The man of the house, as well as his wife are very much interested in this aspect of meal planning, preparation and service. One of the reasons may be that more and more women form a part of the work force or participate in community activities. As a result, there is a lot of emphasis on the ease of food preparation.

You may have observed that in a large number of families, time to prepare a meal is kept to the minimum and they select foods and plan menus with this target in view. A number of things have contributed to this change. A number of convenience foods have come into the market. You get ready-made mixes, instant beverages, and a lot of ready-made foods such as bread, biscuits and snacks [Shev, Chiwda, Mixture], to reduce food preparation to the minimum. Though ease in food preparation is a very important goal, you should not let it lead you to poor nutrition at high cost.

You can serve quick and easily prepared meals and not sacrifice nutrition and money if you put your nutritional know how to use. When you select ready-made foods, check how these fit into the menus you made using the daily food guide. For example, the increased use of salads and fruits is certainly a step in the right direction. But the extensive use of fried and sweet snacks and of the instant beverages contribute very little nutrients in comparison to the caloric content. If you use these once in a while, it may not matter. But if these have become a part of your tea-time and hospitality, you need to check how these affect your day’s food intake. You need to be vigilant in your selection of convenience and ready-made foods so that these do not result in an unbalanced food pattern.

 

• Guiding The Food Habits Of Adults

Ideally, by the time you reach adulthood, you should have developed a healthy eating pattern. Unfortunately for some this does not happen. Some of you may think that your reaching adulthood is a signal for you to eat what you please and when you please. Since you are economically independent, you may tend to buy expensive foods, which have status symbol. These changes are likely to affect your health and well-being, if continued for long. If you persist in these habits, you will not be a suitable model for youngsters in your family, or for your children in later life.

As you know, food habits are closely associated with your sense of security, and any modification, particularly in the adult stage, will require a strong motivation. In Nutrition Through Life Cycle – Old Age, you learnt that your energy need decreases with age. You will realize that modification in food habits need to be made to reduce energy intake as people grow older. The overweight people you see is a proof that they have not made the adjustment. You may observe some people, who are not overweight, but eat foods that do not meet their need for other nutrients, except calories. It is difficult for such people to see the need for change because they maintain their weight and do not associate any symptoms of poor health they may have due to their eating habits. You will agree that cause and effect are not easily noted.

When To Attempt Habit Modification? You must be wondering when you should attempt food habit change in adults. If you find, after careful checking, that the dietary habits lead to poor health, you may attempt to modify them.

You must be cautious in your approach in modifying the food habits of people. You will need to understand the background of their food habits before you can help them to improve/change their diet. The desire for good health is universal. It can be used as a motivating force to help yourself and also others. Remember, example is the most effective teacher. You can motivate others by your own example.

You will find that those who understand the implications of their poor food habits and wish to improve their health through diet change, have a clear goal. For example, a diabetic, who wants to control her diabetes, or a heart patient, who wants to lose weight, have a strong motivation for change. All you need to provide them is reliable information about how to select and prepare foods to meet their specific needs.

Motiving people to change their food habits, which are beneficial to their health, is still a challenging task and further study. You do know however that those who have a good attitude towards all foods have a spirit of adventure that prompts them to taste new food or try new ways of preparing food. They adjust more easily to modifications in diet, be it for health reasons or due to changes in availability of familiar foods.

 

• Monitor Your Food Habits

It is good to remember that our appetite is not necessarily a guide to help us select foods for adequate nutrition. If appetite could guide us, we would not see so many obese and underweight people around us. Many foods, which we are tempted to eat are low in nutritive value. You would be well advised to monitor your food habits periodically with the daily food guide to ensure meeting your nutritional needs. You can also help your family and friends to do the same.

How can you decide if your food habits are good or not? Your food habits are good if you like and eat a variety of foods from each of the food groups. It does not mean you like and eat all foods with equal enjoyment. Most of us have our special preferences, our likes and dislikes. But if you like and include some of the foods from each group to meet your nutritional needs, your food habits are good. If we eat only what we like and what is tasty and exclude foods from one of the food groups, we are likely to suffer from nutritional lack. Thus our food habits can be either an asset or a liability.

You can note how you look and feel and it will be a reflection of your food habits. You can observe the visible signs of good nutrition at any age, in appearance, vigor and stamina. Do you not think it is a goal worth achieving?

 

Related Posts

Nutrition Through The Life Cycle – Preschool Age
Nutrition Through Life Cycle – The School Age
Nutrition Through Life Cycle – Adolescence
Nutrition Through Life Cycle – Adulthood
Nutrition Through Life Cycle – Old Age