ecology pt 3 malnutrition

• Eating habits


  A habit involving the regular consumption of certain types of food; the consistent choices one makes regarding eating, such as food choices, amount of food consumed, frequency of eating, etc.
• Eating habits


  Synonymous with food patterns, food habits or eating patterns
• Eating habits


  Refer to why people eat, which foods they eat, with whom they eat, as well as how people obtain, store, use and discard food
• Factors influencing eating habits


  • Individual, social, cultural, economic, environmental and political
• Food selection decisions


  • Items selected as foods
  • Who makes food selection decisions
  • Role of the "mother" in households has changed
  • Role of the media
• Food procurement


  • How food is obtained? Purchase, self produced, (borrow, beg, steal)
  • Children, institutionalised , homeless, and elderly: Can they make their own decisions?
• Food distribution


  • How is food divided in family/household/community?
  • Determined by income, gender, age?
  • Who has priority?
• Food manipulation/preparation


  • From raw ingredients at home –how often?
  • Prepared and eaten elsewhere -how often?
  • Ready to eat, processed food/meals, canned, frozen
  • Food preparation equipment and resources: stove, gas, paraffin, fridge, freezers, water
• Food consumption


  • What, how much, when, where, with whom. (and why)
  • Staple foods? Why and what is usually added to staple foods
  • Meal patterns
• Factors influencing eating habits


  • Physiological factors
  • Environmental factors
  • Socio-cultural factors
• Physiological factors


  • Satisfy hunger and appetite
  • Supply energy and nutrients
  • Nutrients build and maintain body's functions and processes
• Hunger


  Set of internal signals that stimulate acquisition and consumption of food
• Satiety


  Feeling of satisfaction and fullness that occurs during eating and halts eating
• Hypothalamus


  • Ventromedial nucleus - satiety center
  • Lateral nucleus - hunger or feeding center
• Factors that can influence physiological factors


  • Presence or absence of nutrients in blood
  • Size and composition of previous meal
  • Customary eating patterns
  • Climate
  • Exercise
  • Environmental temperature
  • Illness: physical and mental
• Physiological factors


  • Substances acting as hormones and neurotransmitters on body form a complex and interrelated system of internal signals regulating hunger
• Physiological factors influenced by


  • State of health
  • State of physical development
• Appetite


  Set of signals that guide selection and consumption of specific foods and nutrients
• Appetite


  • Associated with pleasurable sensations provided by food and choices made for specific foods
  • Influenced by metabolic and physiologic factors as well as by hedonic, environmental, social, and cultural factors
  • Sometimes refers to desire for specific foods (e.g. cravings and PICA during pregnancy)
• Bait shyness


  Aversion to food resulting from unpleasant circumstance
• Hedonic factors


  • Taste+smell+texture+temperature = palatability
  • As well as surrounding in which food consumed
  • Senses will determine food acceptance/rejection
  • They vary between individuals and according to age
  • Taste and smell both necessary to enjoy food
• Man can choose to continue to eat or not to eat beyond their physiological stimuli for hunger and satiety
• Environmental factors


  • Money available to spend on food influences quantity & quality & variety of food purchased and consumed in household
  • Impoverished/low income families tend to buy inexpensive calorie-rich foods
  • Wealthier people can afford to eat out frequently in expensive restaurants
• Economic factors


  • Women working away from home affects time for food preparation
  • Meat is often considered essential for meal satisfaction
  • Income-related elasticity of demand
  • Purchase of dried beans/peas/rice/eggs are inversely related to income
  • People with higher income spend more money on foods eaten away from home
• Food security and storage systems


  • Rules about storing and discarding food items
  • Most food consumed in SA is bought but livestock and crop production still occurs in rural areas as subsistence farming
  • Food security influences food consumption patterns
  • Household food shortages can influence eating patterns especially of children
• Availability/Geography


  • Climate affects which foods are produced
  • People grow, gather, fish, hunt or purchase food items depending on their geographic location and cultural practices
  • Technology minimized limitations in developed countries
• Role of the media


  • Advertising expected to not only increase overall product consumption but also specifically increase their market
  • Advocates of food advertisement claim that it stimulates competition and keeps prices down
  • Opponents maintain that huge sums spent on advertising inevitably increase the price of the product
  • Advertising utilizes powerful symbolic meanings of foods
  • Advertisers hope to persuade the child to put pressure on parents to buy brand name products
  • Young children may not be able to distinguish between adverts and programmes
• Role of the media


  • Popular foods are often marketed irrespective of their nutritious value whereas indigenous foods are not
  • Women and children tend to be the most affected due to exposure to a variety of magazines and other media
  • Nutrition education on food composition and how to read labels becomes important to help people make informed choices
• Political factors


  • Policies/laws/regulations
  • Modification of food environments as means to change food habits/eating behavior of people in institutions/community
• Education


  • Positive association between education level of female head-of-households and adequacy of dietary intake
  • Positive correlation between education level and nutrition knowledge
  • More educated households have decreased use of convenience foods, more meals eaten away from home, and more meals eaten together
  • Better nutrition knowledge doesn't necessarily equate better eating practices
• Culture


  • Complex whole that encompasses knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom and habits acquired by man as a member of society
  • Shared patterns that identify members of a cultural group
• Characteristics of a culture


  • It is acquired, not genetic/biological
  • It is a logical integrated whole, not a coincidental conglomerate of habits
• Food ideology


  • Explain how to conduct one's self with regard to eating behaviour
  • The sum of attitudes, beliefs, customs and taboos affecting the diet of a given group
• What is deemed acceptable constitutes an important part of the cultural stability of a society and is passed on from one generation to another via the socialisation process
• Food taboos and folklore


  • Taboo - social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice
  • Folklore - body of particular myths and beliefs relating to a particular place, activity, or group of people
• Although there is little or no scientific basis for these taboos, they are rigidly held and quite resistant to change
• In developing countries, taboos often contribute to malnutrition
• Food taboos and folklore


  An example of folklore is the belief system held by many Chinese regarding yin and yang
• Social values of food


  • Hospitality: food is used to promote friendliness/social warmth
  • Communication/Social value: promote interpersonal acceptance, relationships develop between giver and recipient of food
  • Gift: home-made food products are considered inferior and packaged foods are considered worth giving
• Attaining status/prestige


  • Societies attach prestige value to food
  • Often used to promote an individual's/group's welfare
  • Improvement of status rather than friendship may even be involved in gifts of food or invitation to meals
  • Advertisements and values attached to certain foods often influence people's beliefs