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Health Options
Have you ever asked yourself why you eat the foods you do? Back in "caveman" days, people ate primarily to meet their energy needs. It took a lot of calories to run around doing caveperson things. With the growing incidence of individuals who are overweight in America, it seems obvious that we now eat for other reasons. Estimates indicate more than 60 million people in the United States are overweight. Quick ‘deal’ often
leads to fattening mealAfter reviewing the scientific literature, as well as watching our own eating habits and those around us, we developed the following list of typical reasons for what and how much food people choose to eat. Many of these reasons can lead to habits with potentially harmful long-term effects on health.
The influence of television ads, depression, and boredom are all commonly listed as contemporary factors affecting food intake and consequent weight gain. But at the top of the list is convenience.
Whether eating out or at home, most Americans choose their restaurants or foods to prepare at home based on convenience. This typically results in consuming foods that are higher in calories, fat and sugar than the types of foods prepared at home by previous generations. The more convenient meals today usually contain fewer fruits and vegetables and therefore less vitamins and minerals and food components called phytochemicals that appear to have a variety of health benefits.
Many convenience foods contain more calories and fat. For example, the packaged instant ramen noodles are coated with fat, but longer cooking dry pasta has little or no fat. For equal amounts of cooked instant ramen vs. fresh saimin or dry pasta, the instant version contains nearly 400 calories and 15 grams of fat vs. 300 calories and 2 grams of fat.
It works out that consuming a package of instant ramen every day instead of the same amount of the lower fat versions would provide enough extra calories to add an extra 10 pounds of body fat in a year.
Also high on the list of the reasons we eat what we eat is price and "deals." In the fast food world, there are three main types of "deals" used to entice customers:
1) Combination meals are less expensive than buying the same foods individually. However, the bargain items like hash browns or french fries typically increase your calories by 150 to 350 and fat by 11 to 18 grams per serving.
2) Two for the price of one foods entice consumers to purchase those options. Of course you have now doubled your calories and fat.
3) A number of fast food restaurants also offer "super-sizing" of fries and drinks. Again this adds lots of calories, fat and sugar.
Availability is the third on our list of reason for overeating. At work, dessert-type foods are often available throughout the day. This incredibly convenient way to satisfy a sweet tooth (and fat tooth) is often more tempting than watching food commercials on television.
"Mega" package size purchases encourage overeating by making more food readily available for much longer. Many of us were raised to eat all of the food on our plate and still eat to prevent waste.
Convenience, the tendency to want the best deal and unlimited availability can have long-term effects on body weight and health. Do we dare say, "Don't be penny wise and pound foolish?"
Health Events
Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S., is a food and nutrition consultant
and owner of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.
She is also responsible for the nutritional analyses
indicated by an asterisk in this section.Alan Titchenal, Ph.D., C.N.S., is a sports nutritionist in the
Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Science,
University of Hawaii-Manoa.