Environmental Factors
How Does Your Environment Affect Your Diet? The environment of a person impacts an individual's diet in many forms. Food environments refer to homes, schools, stores, restaurants, food banks, soup kitchens and other physical settings where the cost and availability of foods influence people's diets. Accessibility to shops and the foods available in certain shops shape our eating choices. Those who live in cities and built up areas are more likely to have a variety of nutritious foods available to them compared to those who live in isolated and small communities. Residents who live in communities without access to affordable healthy food options generally have poorer diets. The transport links and geographical location of a person will influence their eating habits.
Majority of food intake consumed by an individual is eaten at home. For many, particularly youth, food that is readily available in their environment strongly affects their eating choices. Households that offer a large variety of fruits and vegetables encourage the people who live their to consume these foods. Compared to households that supply unhealthy food products such as crisps and soft drink where members are more likely to consume high amounts of fatty food and drink.
In today's culture food is always readily available and this has led people to eat without thinking about how hungry they actually are and how much they have already eaten. High availability of food in populated wealthy environments may be the reason for the increasing number of overweight citizens in society throughout many western cultures. Individuals who frequently eat at restaurants/fast food services tend to consume more fat and calories and less fruit, vegetables and fibre than those who eat home prepared meals. Fast food services and restaurants are abundant offering large portion meals leading people to purchase and eat more food than their bodies actually need.
'Food deserts' are places that offer few or no shopping facilities generally throughout low income communities. People who live in these areas will have difficulty maintaining a balanced diet consisting of a variety of nutrients and foods. They may rely on the small supply of products that are offered in their local area or be forced to travel great distances in order to replenish food supplies. This is a great obstacle for many people living in food deserts because often the small stores that are sometimes available supply an overload on nutrient-poor snack choices such as cookies, chips and sodas which overwhelming the limited storage of fruits, vegetables and other healthy options.
Majority of food intake consumed by an individual is eaten at home. For many, particularly youth, food that is readily available in their environment strongly affects their eating choices. Households that offer a large variety of fruits and vegetables encourage the people who live their to consume these foods. Compared to households that supply unhealthy food products such as crisps and soft drink where members are more likely to consume high amounts of fatty food and drink.
In today's culture food is always readily available and this has led people to eat without thinking about how hungry they actually are and how much they have already eaten. High availability of food in populated wealthy environments may be the reason for the increasing number of overweight citizens in society throughout many western cultures. Individuals who frequently eat at restaurants/fast food services tend to consume more fat and calories and less fruit, vegetables and fibre than those who eat home prepared meals. Fast food services and restaurants are abundant offering large portion meals leading people to purchase and eat more food than their bodies actually need.
'Food deserts' are places that offer few or no shopping facilities generally throughout low income communities. People who live in these areas will have difficulty maintaining a balanced diet consisting of a variety of nutrients and foods. They may rely on the small supply of products that are offered in their local area or be forced to travel great distances in order to replenish food supplies. This is a great obstacle for many people living in food deserts because often the small stores that are sometimes available supply an overload on nutrient-poor snack choices such as cookies, chips and sodas which overwhelming the limited storage of fruits, vegetables and other healthy options.