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The science of nutrition and healthy eating
The science of nutrition and healthy eating

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2 Reasons for eating

In Week 1, we briefly looked at the reasons for eating. Now we will go into this in more detail.

Activity 2 Reasons for eating

Timing: Allow approximately 10 minutes.

Can you remember why we eat?

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Answer

The reasons you might have noted are:

  • to stay alive
  • feeling hungry
  • eating is a ‘habit’ and food was available at that time
  • it is time to eat (i.e. breakfast, lunch or evening meal), there are set times to eat these meals
  • eating is sociable and enjoyable
  • just felt like eating but was not hungry
  • upset or feeling anxious and comfort ate.

There are several reasons for eating (see Figure 3).

An infographic showing a male and a female figure.
Figure 3 Different reasons for eating
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An infographic showing a male and a female figure. From the left, clockwise, there are various arrows going in different directions, with the following labels: social influences: hospitality, resources, obligation habit: social norms, timing, availability, peer pressure, physiological need: hunger, satiety, metabolism, the individual, sensory appeal: appearance, smell, taste, texture, pleasure, variety, psychological influence, boredom, depression, comfort, rejection.

Figure 3 Different reasons for eating

We have already talked about sensory appeal – smell, taste and appearance. There is also, of course, a physiological need to just stay alive! Figure 4 summarises the physiological factors that control hunger and food intake.

An infographic of the physiological factors controlling hunger and food
Figure 4 Physiological factors controlling hunger and food
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An infographic of the human body, with the following labels, clockwise, from bottom left, stores, with a double ended arrow going to metabolism (carbohydrate and protein metabolism autoregulated), with an arrow going to output. This arrow then points towards the head of the human body diagram, with hunger labelled inside the head, sight labelled at the front of the head and smell labelled just underneath. An arrow comes out of the mouth and goes to a food intake label with a diagram of a plate of food. From the top right of the diagram, there is the label, sight, smell or even the thought of food triggers the cephalic phase of appetite. An arrow then points to another label; secretion of saliva and gastric juices. This label is above an arrow that points towards the back of the head and comes from two different places, one being from a label that points to the stomach, with the label gastric distention detected by stretch receptors, and the other goes to the bottom of the diagram with the following labels: presence of food in duodenum, release of gut hormones e.g. CCK. The bottom of the diagram has two more labels, absorption (in fat absorption does not reduce hunger) and glucose and amino acids.

Figure 4 Physiological factors controlling hunger and food