Duffy

09/20/12

Factors Affecting Food Choices

In the Smith household, every single family members personal life distinguishes the factors of how they pick and choose to eat, followed along with the social, economic, and religious factors. Regardless of the familys day schedule, an important ritual that persists for this group is dinner. Every evening, the family will sit down, eat their food, and go over daily events and incidents that happened on the present day. The Smith dinner shapes the way every family member has to balance out their schedule with school, sports, activities, and work. The Smith family consists of four members, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Smith, Daniel Smith, and Julia Smith. Every member of the family has their own things to do, altering the way every member of the family will eat daily. Mr. Smith, the father of the family at age 45, works at his towns local fire department. Mr. Smith has to wake up every morning very early to be on time for work at 8:00 a.m., and then will proceed throughout the day eating at the fire station for lunch, and then will return home to attend dinner with the rest of his family. At the fire station, the lunch that is served there is cooked in the stations kitchen. The cafeterias menu lists a group of large foods, including clubhouse sandwiches, lasagne, pizza and a poutine dish. It is very clear to Mr. Smith that a lot of the food served at his work contains a lot of calories and could evidently affect his health one way or another, but regardless of how unpromising a indulging lunch habit could be, Mr. Smith is accompanied by all of his co-workers for lunch, thus pressuring him to order something one of his buddies would say is a meal. But as a result of this, Mr. Smith tends on eating healthier foods in the morning, and takes on the dare of eating no dessert after dinner. A morning routine for the father of the family starts off with a hardboiled egg and a glass of orange juice, nourishing him with vitamin C and protein. With lunch and dinner being the last meals of the day, Mr. Smith stays away from snacking at night to avoid any eating habits, knowing that this could catch up with him later. Mrs. Smith, the mother in the family at age 44, is also a working parent. She has a job in one of the buildings downtown working in the human resources department, filling up her week with a lot of stressful and tiring work. Mrs. Smith will usually pick up a coffee in a drivethrough on the way to work to tolerate her mornings, and she will only leave it at that. She tends to eat a relative amount of snacks during the day at work; eating chips and chocolate stashed away in her drawer. The office pastries and other treats tempt Mrs. Smith to eat them, and because of her sweet tooth, she will evidently eat the snacks. It is known that Mrs. Smith has a bit of a snacking habit, and will eat more than she should, but this is only the case because of the stress she is going through daily; she will also find herself snacking at home while watching television or while using the computer, just to satisfy her cravings for snacks. Taking care of two kids and working a hard job for 9 hours a day tires Mrs. Smith out, and excludes her from doing any activities after work. This laziness has become very comfortable with the mother of the Smith family, not motivating her at all to do any type of exercise or activities on the weekend. Being the cook of the family, she will buy the groceries and start to prepare dinner
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after the arrival home from work. Mrs. Smith happens to have a form of advantage from working so much, in this case being the little extra amounts of money towards groceries. From this, she will buy healthy and expensive fruits and vegetables for the family to consider. To the parents of the family, fruits and vegetables may not catch their eye right away, but to the children of the family is a different story. Mr. And Mrs. Smith are very concerned in their childrens eating habits nowadays; they are worried of them taking on their parents food eating habits. Daniel Smith, the son in the Smith family also being the oldest at 17, has a tremendous amount of recognition from his high school football career. Daniel will spend five days a week after school towards football practise and games, devoting a huge majority of his time towards his team; being the captain takes a lot of responsibility and time. Every other day of the week, Daniel works out at the school gym after practises with a few of his teammates, spending his leisure time on body building. This schedule requires a serious diet to support such activities and a growing boy. Daniel needs at least 2,200 to 3,200 calories per day, and with this being the case, Daniel will make sure to eat healthy meals for breakfast, lunch, and including dinner. In the morning he will have two eggs and a glass of orange juice, benefiting him with a good amount of protein and vitamin C. After half of a day at school, Daniel confines himself to eating his home made lunches consisting of: a cold cut meat sandwich, a chicken wrap, and an apple, occasionally buying chocolate milk from the cafeteria vending machines and in other cases Daniel will drink his water. After practises, its time for Daniel to work out with his friends. After the weight lifting, Daniel has a banana for a snack, and a protein shake made from home as well. Resistance exercise breaks down muscles, so he will make sure to carry a protein shake with him, usually containing about 15 grams of protein an ideal amount for post work outs. The snack and shake will be eaten on the bus home, so Daniel can make it in time for dinner. As a consideration of Daniels diet, Mr. And Mrs. Smith will intend on making a loaf of bread every other day of the week at dinner for Daniel. This benefits his routine because bread contains carbohydrates, and this raises insulin, slows the protein breakdown, finally making the muscle growth faster for his body. The parents will prepare a type of meat to go along with the bread, but have a picky appetite for where their meat comes from. Located 10 minutes north of the Smith household there is a free range farm with chicken, cattle and pigs. The parents feel as if this locally grown option for their meat is a greater decision over factory produced meats found in the grocery store, and will simply stay away from it this does not only benefit the family physically, but also benefits the economy as well; it is known that for every dollar spent at a local market generates twice the income for the local economy. The parents will also consider their daughters regard for her religion, by making a vegetarian meal for Julia. Julia Smith, the daughter and the youngest sibling being 15, is a very individual type of person, and likes to spend most of her days indoors finishing homework and studying because of her intentions of going into university. Julia gets plenty of exercise from walking the family dogs, and her co-ed gym course that she takes. However, Julia has a certain type of respect for some types of food, because of her religion. Mr. and Mrs. Smith made it very clear to both of
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their children that they could decide what type of religion they wanted to be. Julia took this into consideration and looked into the ways of the Buddhist. Buddhists are primarily vegetarians, and with this being the case, Julia will practise vegetarianism throughout her life. Julia feels as if the vegetarian life style is a smart option, and also thinks it reduces her chance of meat related sickness or disease; after watching a documentary on meat thats produced in factories, she decided to stay away from the chance of e-coli poisoning. So, with the parents of the family fully accepting their daughters choice of being, they prepare a vegetarian meal to go with the bread and the free range meat. The Smith family diet varies between vegetarians and meat lovers, and snack lovers to obligated snack eaters. Each member of the family has a great understanding for how their diet benefits and affects them, and will base their schedule and eating habits around their activities. In the Smith family, social, emotional, economic, cultural, religious, and physical factors clearly affects how they pick and choose to eat.

Identifying the Factors

Social: Food can be very attempting to one who sits in an office all day with nothing to do, and will be simply eaten from boredom. However, there is also a form of peer pressure that influences eating habits, and could persist throughout a career. Both temptations to food are from the social factor of eating; most of the time people dont even notice that they are lured into this trap of friendly snacking creating a very unpromising atmosphere for those who are vulnerable enough not care, depending on the food of course. Mr. Smiths co-workers often influence Mr. Smith to eat a large meal for lunch, and since insisted, Mr. Smith wont decline this offer from his peers. Mrs. Smith is found to be snacking at work all of the time not on her own terms, but from the lure of the office eating atmosphere. Mrs. Smith happens to be in a friendly office, and those working in it are serious about eating finger foods, chips and pastries while on break or even working. This completely affects her eating habits.

Economic: It is important to figure out what foods you are buying and preparing for dinner; however, the price can affect your budget for groceries slowly over time, reducing the amount of money in your pocket. The supply and demand of some markets over grocery stores can affect your local economys development.

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Mrs. Smith in this case study is known to purchase her chicken and meat for her home meals at the local market located 10 minutes away from the Smith household. Every dollar towards a local market generates twice as much money for the local economy.

Emotional: There are a lot of foods known to be called: comfort foods. The reason why foods are called comfort foods is because of the positive emotional affect it can have on somebody who is either happy, sad, or any other emotions that could trigger someones hunger. Mrs. Smith is known to have a very stressful schedule with working a 9 hour job and having kids, things can become very tough for Mrs. Smith to handle. One of her ways of escaping such torment from her job and family is through eating, and Mrs. Smith will indulge in snacking at work and at home after the job.

Religious & Cultural: Religious and cultural food decision behaviour is influenced heavily by the beliefs and traditions of ones religion. Some religions intend on not eating meat for certain reasons, while others will eat meat; staying away from it on special occasions, celebrations or Sabbath days. In this family, there is a child that happens to have personal beliefs for a particular religion. Julia is a Buddhist, and stays away from eating meats. Julia practises vegetarianism throughout her teenage life.

Physical: If someone is either working out for their physical health, or weight lifting for beneficial body improvements, ones diet can critically affect how they pick and choose to eat. Its either between eating the right amount of food to provide only the credential nourishment and calories, or supplying ones self with protein and carbohydrates to improve and stimulate muscle growth. Daniel Smith, the boy, is known to work out after school every other day of the week. He will eat certain amount of protein, and will also eat a good amount of bread to nourish carbohydrates. Mr. Smith will only eat a hardboiled egg and drink a glace of orange juice every morning to watch his diet. He knows that lunch carries a heaven burden with the large amount of calories, so he will tone it down for breakfast and dinner meals.

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The Smith Dinner Menu

Starter: Garden Salad (tossed salad) with Honey Mustard dressing: Shredded cheddar cheese Cherry tomatoes (locally grown) Sliced onion () Romanian lettuce () Main Course: Fried Chicken (Daniels main course): Boneless & skinless chicken breast halves (free ranged) Vegetarian Quiche (Julias main course): Side dish: Mashed Potatoes (combatable both for Daniel and Julia): Potatoes (locally grown) Corn on the Cob Corn (locally grown) Dessert: Vanilla Ice Cream Beverages: The choice of either Milk or Water Zucchini (locally grown) Bell peppers () Sliced onion () Sliced tomatoes () Mushrooms () Shredded parmesan & cheddar cheese

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The Rules of Meal Planning

Incorporating different flavours: Throughout the whole dinner, different flavours were clearly incorporated through the separate stages of the dinner. The starter, with honey mustard dressing, gives the salad a sweet and sour taste to distinguish the mind from understanding the starter course, to the following main course. The main course, fried chicken, has a salty and sweet taste to it. It is very clear that the starter and the main course are completely different tasting things. With the vanilla ice cream as being the last part of the course, a rich flavour of vanilla is indulged in after eating a heavy plate.

Incorporating different colors: Throughout the dinner, the different colors are evident on the plate. Starting with the green salad with cherry tomatoes and cheddar cheese, already there is a colourful start to this dinner. The main & side dishes do not share the same color as can be told, the fried chicken has a brown color to it, the mashed potatoes are white, and the corn on the cob is yellow, distinguishing each part of the course not only by color but also from texture.

Incorporating different textures: It is noted that in this dinner there are a variety of different textures. The vegetarian quiche has a soft inside with a crisp crust on the outside to balance out the different textures. The fried chicken is crisp out the outside (crisper than the salad) and has a soft inside where the chicken isnt fried. The side dishes balance out the fried chicken and the quiche very well. The mashed potatoes give Daniel a different texture, from being crisp to very soft and smooth, while Julia eats the corn on the cob, giving a bit more of a crispy and chewy texture from her quiche.

Incorporating different temperatures: It is known that throughout the Smith dinner, different temperatures are used to increase meal satisfaction. The salad has a cold temperature, so the salad is more fresh. The main course entitles warm entrees with a cold dessert to finish it off this balances out the dinner very well, making it very satisfying.

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Incorporating different sizes: The Smith dinner does not only include different sizes of food to be eaten, but also contains different shapes to the meal, making the eye not sustainable to the same shape of every piece of food on the plate. The starter and the dessert both come in the same shape and size, a round bowl or a plate, and is set like this to level out the balance of shape and size. The main course and side dish, containing fried chicken (medium), corn on the cob (large) and mashed potatoes (medium) gives a perfect balance to the dinner for maintaining different sizes and approaching different types of shapes that appeal to the eye.

Ingredients for the Main Course

Vegetarian Quiche ingredients: 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup chopped zucchini 1 (9 inch) unbaked pastry shell 2 tablespoons butter 1 1/2 cups chopped onion 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 cup chopped tomatoes 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms 1 clove garlic, minced 1/4 teaspoon curry powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 pinch ground cinnamon 5 eggs 1/4 cup milk 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Fried Chicken ingredients: 30 saltine crackers 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons dry potato flakes 1 teaspoon seasoned salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 egg 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (the free range ones) 2 cups vegetable oil for frying
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Cost of the Main Course

Vegetarian Quiche: The vegetarian quiche ingredients that are not available in my kitchen already are estimated to add up to the price of fifteen dollars, making it a very inexpensive meal, also containing a lot of nutrition also satisfies Julia for her vegetarian desire for foods. Zucchini Pastry Shells Green bell pepper Mushrooms Garlic cloves Curry powder $3.00 $4.00 $2.00 $2.00 $2.00 $2.00 $16.00

Total cost: Fried Chicken:

The ingredients that I do not have in my kitchen for Daniels preferred fried chicken are estimated to be around seventeen dollars. If it wasnt for some of the basic ingredients that a good amount of household kitchens contain, then this would probably be more of an expensive meal but for the economic side of this purchase, the local economy generated more money because of this buy. Saltine crackers Potato flakes 6 chicken breasts Total cost: $5.00 $3.50 $8.50 $17.00