The Factors, Contemporary Nutrition Controversies, and Cultural Differences that Drive Our Food Choices - Part II of School Assignment Ashford University

Let’s face it, no matter how good our food choices are at home we are weak when it comes to social eating.  For example, Super Bowl Sunday is coming up in just a few short weeks and you have made a choices to change your life for the better and have started eating a Paleolithic type diet, but as soon as you walk through the doors of your friends house you smell the buffalo cheese dip, the little smokies in barbeque sauce, chili and so much more.  However, even with the smell wafting through you are able to hold your own or until your friend walks by with his plate and just says come on, enjoy yourself this one time, let loose.  Before you know it you are enjoying yourself and then hating yourself the next day.  We are all social creatures and have always socialized around food take for example birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, retirement parties, baby showers, etc. they are all surrounded by some type of food.  Food is not only considered social but it can be symbolic especially when it comes to ethnic foods and celebrating/sharing in someone else’s culture and heritage.  Some food choices are made based upon what one has newly learned or been exposed to in the past and/or present.  For example, if one moves to a new city, state, or country he/she is then exposed to new foods and may change his/her food choices and even food related beliefs based upon this new cultural experience.  There can be many different factors other than social that contribute to food choices such as “psychological, physical, and philosophical” (Sizer, & Whitney, 2017a, p. 13).  For example, “emotional comfort, advertisements, social norms, region of country, values, beliefs, weight, nutrition/health” benefits just to name a few (Sizer, & Whitney, 2017b, p. 13).  While everyone is different and everyone is motivated by different circumstances most individuals tend to base his/her food choices upon taste, price, and convenience rather than health (Sizer, & Whitney, 2017c, p. 13).

Whether we like it or not both social media and television has a way of influencing the nutritional choices of individuals.  There are so many controversies out there that sometimes it is hard for individuals to distingue fact from fiction, not only that but research is fairly new in the area of nutrition.  So lets talk about some of these controversies and confusions.  Take for example the fact that Americans have been falsely led to believe that sugar-free and fat-free products are better for us regardless of the evidence to the contrary.  Lets talk about sugar-free for a moment while one should not consume sugar, which we will discuss in a later post, artificial sweeteners (especially aspartame) are not good for ones health, but rather one should substitute sugar for raw organic honey, grade B maple syrup, or stevia.  The aspartame website states that it contains the same components (amino acids, aspartic acid, etc.) that regular foods do and that there are over 200 scientific studies that support its safety including approval by the FDA, WHO, and the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).  However, the FDA also tends to deem a lot of medication safe only to later recall it due to either the side effects being to great or the number of related deaths.  For example, Baycol was on the market from 1998 to 2001 when it was recalled due to kidney failure, 52 deaths, and 385 hospitalizations (35 FDA-approved prescription drugs later pulled from the market, 2014, para. 4). Further more the JECFA also deems additives and colorings as safe, which can be found in many foods and drugs despite evidence.  According to an article in PubMed “FD&C Blue No. 1 (Brilliant Blue FCF [BB FCF]) appears to be involved either directly or indirectly in several disorders such as Crohn’s disease, stroke, and injuries to the central nervous system (Wang, Jackson, & Dahl, 2013, abstract).  Some other controversies surround multivitamins, good fat verses bad fat, coconut oil, carbohydrates, food dyes, calorie intake, the food pyramid, essential oils, herbs, medication, vaccines, and the list goes gone.  When deciding fact from fiction one must be very attentive and do ones own research, as there is a lot of controversy even among the scientific community with regards to nutrition and preventative health.

References

35 FDA-approved prescription drugs later pulled from the market. (2014, Jan 30). ProCon.org: The Leading Source For Pros & Cons of Controversial Issues. Retrieved from http://prescriptiondrugs.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=005528

Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2017). Nutrition: Concepts and controversies (14^th ed). Cengage Learning: OH. Retrieved from VitalSource Bookshelf

Wang, J., Jackson, D. G., & Dahl, G. (2013, May 14). The food dye FD&C blue No. 1 is a selective inhibitor of the ATP release channel Panx1, 141(5), 649-656. doi:10.1085/jgp.201310966