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).
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.
