Effects of Social and Psychological Factors on Diet and Health - Term Paper Example

?Effects of social and Psychological factors on diet And Health Unit: Lecture: Introduction Good diet is important for a human being. Thisis because food is needed for great health. Good health and proper dieting methods go hand in hand among human beings. Access to proper dieting methods is reflected greatly by the modern hectic lifestyles. The number of health issues as a result of poor dietary methods is increasing nowadays. The World Health Organization has raised concerns over the alarming increase rate of health disorders. Diet has been approached in terms of diverse and desperate factors, including gender, differences, effects on globalization, the medicalization of diet and social class differences (Larkin 2011). Smoking causes serious health problems which have major social implications. It increases the risk of developing lung cancer by 23times in men, 13 times in women, stroke by 2 to 4 times, coronary heart disease by 2 t 4 times and death from obstructive lung diseases by 12 to 13 times. I will be discussing diet from the perspective of social factors of stress or other forms of discrimination, formal education and cultural norms. From a psychological perspective, diet has been approached from the factor of control (Upton 2012). Diet is an extremely powerful psychological phenomenon and related to a concept of need for control (2005). Adolescents differ in their risks of developing eating disorder (ED) in different behaviors per gender. The EAT-40 and the Inventory of Behavioural Health in Scholars were applied to students in Spain.52.8% were girls and 47.2% were boys with an average age of 14years old. From the results girls with high risk of developing an ED consumed fewer meals, ate fewer unhealthy foods and paid more attention on nutritional components. They also exercised more with objective of losing weight, consumed tobacco, alcohol and medicines. Boys at high risk of developing an ED paid more attention to nutritional components and more diets. No more differences were found on boys. Therefore, any program directed at the prevention of ED should only include nutritional education but seek to promote regular exercising with objectives other than burning calories or weight loss. I will also be discussing the diet from the perspective of psychological factors of low self esteem and stress. Social factors that can affect health Psychological and social aspects of proper dietary and health have been ignored as compared to physiology of nutrition (Aarts, 2013). Some of the social factors that affect health are; stress related prejudice, discrimination or racial and cultural norms that value people on basis of appearance rather than inner qualities and strengths. Stress Stress is defined as a psychological problem which affects an individual when they are faced with the difficult situation beyond their control. Stress can be as a result of failure to accomplish ones goals in life. Stress can also emanate from the individual’s failure to reach a specific level in the society. Combination of education and stress provides the best platform to study the effects of social and psychological effects on diet and health (R, The Science and mind Behaviour, 2010). Most people tend to eat a lot when stressed, take the case of a person who conflicts with their boss at the office. This individual will be stressed and instead of cooking a meal with a balanced diet, they end up feeding on junk food. Junk food contains unbalanced nutritional components which may lead to severe health effect to that individual. In other cases, people with low education levels end up earning less in terms of wages. Studies show that people with low incomes make the majority of the most stressed individuals since they have to sacrifice most of their needs to meet those of family members. Studies show that students make 90% of people who consume junk food. The rate at which this happens may be as a result of strenuous activities one has to go through before completing their studies. This makes that particular individual experience stress which makes them eat food with high levels of sugar (Giddens A, 2013). Cultural norms Professionals argue that, better wages enable most families to access proper dieting. This is because the family members can afford variety of foods which translates to a balanced diet. On the hand, families with low incomes are subjected to overdependence on a particular type of food. This trend limits them to that type of food hence hindering them from accessing a wide range of products. Low incomes as a result of lack of education are viewed by World Health Organisation as the major contributor to poor dieting techniques in developing countries. They argue that the inabilities of these families are not able to access different types of foods which could be used to provide the right diet to these households. With the increasing level of living standards, people who earn very little as compared to others are subjected to strenuous situations. This is because they are made to utilise the little earnings in settling bills and providing the right meals to their families (Mills, 2012). This situation may force the affected families to settle for less expensive foods which do not meet their diet needs. Children from these families may eventually end up being infected with diet related health problems. Some of the disorders associated with poor diet include malnutrition, skin related disorders and weak immune system which may expose the affected children and adults to other viral diseases. Overdependence on a particular diet may also lead to obesity and kwashiorkor which are some of the most dangerous diet related diseases. For example, Kwashiorkor is caused by lack proteins in the body. This implies that overdependence on foods which contain excess of sugars (starch) may lead to this infection (Mullier, 2012). Psychological factors influencing health behaviour Psychological effects are the emotions and feelings that force human beings to eat. They are also related to aspects related to particular types of food. These effects are hunger, thirst, taste and delight. Some people are inclined to certain types of food, not because of hunger but as a result of taste or even aroma. Association with a specific type of food is the outcome of individual experience. Low self esteem Low self esteem is a psychological effect which results in lack of access to education. People who have not been able to acquire formal education in the society tend to view themselves as inferiors as compared to the educated lot. Low self may be also is as a result of poor living standards implying poor diet hence poor health to the affected individual (Barkley, 2007). One of the most common disorders associated with poor dietary due to change in lifestyle is obesity. Malnutrition is another health consequence of poor dietary. This is due to lack of proper feeding habits. Education on nutritional foods The aspect of lack of proper education is highly reflected in middle economies and developing countries. The question that remains in the mindsets of several individuals is, “how does proper knowledge of nutrition and good dieting behaviours affect the health of children and women in the society?” People should know that education and knowledge of nutrition needs of the family are based on the general view that individuals should have attained a particular level of formal education. This implies that availability of formal education to society contributes a lot when it comes to proper dieting and healthy lifestyles. Take a situation where people living there have no access to the basic level of formal education; this clearly creates the impression that even civil education alone cannot help them into attaining full knowledge on proper dieting (Giddens A, 2013). Education is an important social aspect to consider when analyzing the effects of social aspects on diet. Education is the only channel through which a society can learn different survival techniques. The social status of any society rises with the level of education attained by its members (Johnson, 2011). This is because better earnings are obtained through completion of higher levels of education. Take a scenario where one society has thirty doctors, and another has none. Health standards of the society with more doctors will be at high notch as compared to the other society. Education can contribute a lot to the well being of the society hence forms the best aspect to be considered (Aarts, 2013). Education can either have negative or positive effects on the dietary habits of a given society. This is as viewed on both sides of education levels, those members of the society who have attained formal education and those who have not. Education is a social economic factor which together with physical fitness and social relationship of an individual affects their health. Limited education in the society has led to individuals to acquire low paying jobs which translate to low living standards. When we compare the health standards in Northern America and South America; it is clear that South America has more diet related disorders as compared to their northern counterparts. This trend is also prevalent in Africa countries where citizens are able to access formal education as compared to others. Looking at the families of these two classes of people, one will notice that there is a high reduction of diet related disorders (Ed, 2010). In modern lifestyle, time for the traditional family dinner and lunch has been forgotten. It is during these moments that parents can influence eating habits in their children. Sharing family meals enables parents to educate their children on proper eating habits hence it may help the children when picking snacks at the cafe. Poor dieting habits among children are usually as a result of lack of influence from their parents on safe eating habits. This may lead to irregular attitudes toward certain types of food by the children. Earlier on, dieting was considered as a means of exploring the dynamics of science. Lack of education is not the only factor which affects the type of food people consume. Access to education has also impacted negatively on diet and health standards of the society. People who are educated in the society spend most of their time in the offices and hence have minimal time to prepare food at home. This makes them depend on processed meals, which are not recommended. This is because most manufacturers in the food processing present false information to their customers on nutritional composition of the food they sell. This trend has impacted negatively on the health of these people. Take for example, the case of a person who works eight to nine hours a day. According to World Health Organization, obesity is as a result of consumption of food which contains excess sugar. There is the need to educate people on effects of consuming food with excess sugar. The impact of education on health and diet trends in the moderns has been seen as diverse, and it affects both the educated and uneducated (Giddens A, 2013). Education also enables people to access information on nutrition in the process of learning. The ability of an individual to read and write enables them to access information from journals, books and newspapers on good diets. This enables them to avoid eating habits, which might affect their health (Haralambos, 2008). Conclusion Education is the major contributor of poor or better diet habits in the modern society. In conclusion, access to education can contribute to poor eating habit in the society due to over spending time in office. More so, lack of education can lead to poor diet hence poor health in that the individual lacks enough income to buy a wide variety of food diet. References Aarts, H. 2013. why most diabeters fail. A goal conflict model of eating disorder , 110-138. Adler, A, 1931. What life Should mean to you, New York, Capricom Barkley, R.A, 2005. ADHD and the nature of Self Control, New York, Guildford Publication. Corey, G, 2001. Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psycotherapy, Belmont, Brooks Co. Ed, d. 2010. Health effects of media on children. A journal of the american pediatrics , 756-767. Giddens A, S. P. 2013. sociology. New York. Giddens & Sons. Haralambos, H. 2008. Themes and perspectives. In Collins, Socialogoly (p. 1). New york, Collins prin Heather, P. 2004. A review of Familly and Social Determinants of feeding habits. Diet Quality ,20-1, 83-91. Johnson, M. W. (2011). A healthy contribution. Health Psycology , 24. Mills, S. 2012. self care and illness prevention. Obesity , 130-134. Mullier, C. 2012. A short series on Diabetes. London: British School of Nursing. Read More