Food choice is a complex process because it is deeply embedded in culture, is influenced by many factors internal and external to the person, and carries many different meanings (Contento, 2006). Personally, I consider the majority of animals edible, however I would never eat kangaroo after a trip to Australia and falling in love with them, or cat as I have a pet cat. I have eaten many weird foods such as snails and shark. However in some cultures these food types are just the norm, it only seems weird to our culture because it is seen as different. I have eaten many parts of animals: liver, kidney, cheek etc and love haggis and black pudding. I could not, however, eat heart or brain as I just find those parts of an animal a bit too strange; again due to our culture. If there was a serious lack of food I probably would consider eating things I hadn't before, simply for survival.
I eat nearly all vegetables other than celery, it is something I seriously dislike but I have tried.
Many of my friends where I come from do not eat any vegetables, and are very fussy with food, especially fish. I think a lot of this is to do with the fact the city I came from is quite a deprived area and you are deemed 'weird' if you eat foods other than chips, turkey dinosaurs, burgers etc. Also, people eat as their parents eat, as found in a study where the second most common reason for choosing food types, behind taste, was familiarity or habit at 19% (Contento, 2006). This shows that people eat what they are used to, and often don't branch out to try many different things. Often people say they dislike food without even trying it, just because their peers do and they want to be considered 'normal' and 'the same'. Often when I was younger, I would have vegetable sticks in my lunch box and fruit for my break times and I was called 'posh', thus showing the way people perceive that people who eat well are almost better than those who don't eat so healthily/differently. Sometimes I would put my fruit in the bin and not eat it at my break times as I didn't want to be seen as different or estranged from my peers. This has been backed up in research; it has been found that eating with others affects what an individual consumes (de Castro, 1994). However, now I am older this wouldn't bother me and I would eat what I want; suggesting that food choices may change through different ages of life, and may be apparent at different periods of time. "People’s attitudes towards food may form according to the impact of their particular historical era, the cultural and social settings to which they are exposed throughout their lives, and the timing and trajectories of their individual experiences of past and current events" (Bordieu, 1986)
- Bordieu, P. (1986) Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
- Contento, I., Williams, S., Michela, J. & Franklin, A. (2006) Understanding the food choice process of adolescents in the context of family and friends. Journal of Adolescent Health, Vol 38(5):575-582
- de Castro, J. (1994) Family and friends produce greater social facilitation of food intake than other companions. Ph/siol Behav. Vol 56(3):445-455
A promisign blog here, which begins to reflect on the reasons for your food choices. You could build on this, thinking a little more about family/social influences and using academic material to develop this.
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