As you completed this assignment and reviewed the lectures (see the socioecological model lecture and diagram provided), you rea
lized that there are several factors that influenced your own daily food choices. What are they? Explain. Think about the following as you write your response: (essay format for each segment) 1. Individual factors influencing your daily food choices (demographics, other personal factors)
2. Settings (homes, schools, worksites, etc.)
3. Sectors (systems, organizations, and businesses and industries), and
4. Social and cultural norms and values (belief systems, traditions, heritage, etc.).
Additional question: how can the Social-Ecological Model help us with our daily food choices?
Social -ecological system is the set of different factors which influence our living styles, our dietary habits, our dress choice etc. on a daily basis. In today's world, everything act is done by people are only based on its popularity or followed by trends. Similarly, our daily food choices are also influenced by the trends and our surroundings in which we live. There is the impact of multiple factors on our daily food choices.
Behavioral factors: behavioral factor is the most important factor which have a huge impact on our daily food choice. An individual health condition, behavior, attitude, work routine majorly influence the food choices. An individual personal preferences, likes and dislikes also influenced his food choices.
Biological factors: these factors can influence individually as well as globally. Hunger, nutrient requirements, condition of safe food, health conditions are the major biological factors which play major role, when it comes to choose daily food. These factors can affect the global food preferences, for example in the pandemic of convid-19 food choice were similar of every individual globally.
Economic factors: availability of food, cost of food, balancing of needs and demands also impacts our daily food choices. If cost are too high of basic food and the availability is only limited to certain people, it automatically impacts on the food choice of an individual.
Social Factor: when we talk about social factors these are the group of different small factors like culture, work environment, school, colleges, religious preferences, friends circles, demographic conditions etc. our daily food choices are mostly based on the social factors because our likes and dislikes, meal patterns, our preference of food (cooked, raw, packages, cooking style etc.) Everything based on the impact of the surroundings. In schools and colleges, students are bound to eat what is available or what their friends prefer to eat. Religious backgrounds always choose as per their rulings. Traditional foods, cultural heritages also an impactful factor for our daily food choices.
Physiological factors: mental health condition are also one of the important factor which can not be neglected when we choose our food to eat. A healthy individuals preferences will always be different from a sick person.
Social-ecological model can help us with our daily food choices by giving us the knowledge of the factors and its healthy impact on our food choices which can lead us to a healthy life and prosperous environment. Smart choice not only make us health but also make the environment healthy for our lives.
