Food is any consumable substance that provides nutritional value to an organism. Food plays a critical role in human lives. It gives them energy and nutrients that enable them to grow, remain healthy, active and be able to work and learn. The nutrients in food include; fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Due to its nutritional value, food tends to influence humans’ lifestyles, beliefs, and their eating habits (“The Factors That Influence Our Food Choices”). Therefore, the demand of food is high among people and as people strive to meet these demand, the influence of food tends to extend to the societal systems including; the economic, institutional, cultural and governmental systems. Therefore, this paper will discuss the influence of food on human in three aspects. The discussion will be based on an interdisciplinary framework.
Food has a significant influence on human beings’ lifestyle. Essentially, individual dietary choices are mainly influenced by food through considerations such as convenience, taste, cost as well as food’s nutritional value. Food influences a person’s sensory aspects of taste making the individual crave for certain food and consequentially leading to a sedentary lifestyle. The smell, physical appearance, as well as the food texture, tends to influence an individual’s food choice. From a tender age, the taste of a certain food, as well as its familiarity, also influences humans’ behavior towards food (“The Factors That Influence Our Food Choices”). For instance, a preference of sweetness and a dislike of bitter food are innately human characteristics, however, taste choices and food disgusts develops through influences caused by food on our belief, attitude or expectations. For instance, a food that has a good and appealing appearance creates a bigger expectation to humans that it is definitely sweet and delicious but when tasted by and turns out that the food is neither sweet nor delicious as per its physical appearances it influences humans to develop a certain behavior towards these foods such as hatred or dislike towards these foods. Additionally, due to food preferences based on taste, is certain that most people consume food based on pleasure purposes rather than for nutritional purposes (“The Factors That Influence Our Food Choices”). Therefore, delicious foods that have sweet tastes, therefore, tend to influence people come up with poor and inappropriate eating habits. People are pushed by taste to start having unhealthy eating habits. Fast foods such as fries are considered to be convenient and tasteful and as a consequence, it has influenced most people to develop unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyle by sticking only on these foods which lack nutritional value to the body. Currently, it has been determined that many people especially youths have been influenced by food choices majorly feeding on junk food which have led to increased cases of obesity.
Food is considered as an economic resource. Humans have various needs and they require more money to meet those needs. These needs include paying for their bills and for their own sustenance. Food as an economic resource influences humans to develop entrepreneurship skills and start businesses so that they can earn themselves a source of income. Food is a commodity in high demand and human beings depend on it for survival and nutritional value (Veselovsky et al. 212). Since food has a ready market and is fast moving, it tends to influence humans to start businesses that sell food. A business dealing in food merchandise is very profitable with high returns and steady income. Essentially, business profitability and its capacity to generate a steady source of income attract investors.
Food also influences people to work hard to attain their own economic objectives. The original value of food which is to provide energy to human being energizes them giving the potential of working harder to achieve their economic objectives and the social class they aspire. In essence, food influences humans to be productive by giving them the energy to be able to hustle and work in order to earn wages that can be used to meet other basic and secondary needs (Veselovsky et al. 232). Work cannot be done when someone is hungry and without energy therefore, when one is energetic and healthy he is motivated to work and be a productive member of the society.
Food also influences people major and invest in food production. Instances of food shortages that have led to a food crisis in a country have influenced people to carry out agricultural activities such as farming in order to increase food production and avoid starvation leading to death. The incidence of food shortages has influenced governments to get involved in food production and food protection (Mylan et al. 35). Governments have developed significantly focused on food security by promoting food production majorly by providing aid and support to agricultural farmers. Governments have granted free fertilizers to farmers so as to improve food production. Moreover, most governments have also developed their food production projects aims at improving food production in their respective countries. Additionally, the food shortage crisis has influenced governments to establish policies so as to guard food production as well as consumption. Food security policies have been created so as to protect food and ensure that the country has a steady supply of food to avoid starvation (Mylan et al. 39). Indeed food has a big influence on humans triggering the government to take action in promoting food production and ensuring enough food supply in the country. A country needs a healthy and productive population for its economic prosperity. Therefore, due to the influence and significance of food, the government is triggered to protect food and ensure that everyone gets enough food. Food choice also influences the government’s focus on the type of food to produce more or even import (Mylan et al. 65). For instance, the government will tend to promote and increase the production of the country’s staple food other than any other food because it is mostly preferred by the people in the country. Moreover, the government will consider importing food that is mostly preferred by its people.
To sum it all, food plays a significant role in human life. It provides nutrients to their bodies and energy which enables them to grow and remain healthy. There are various factors triggers food to influence humans which include the taste of food, convenience, and the food’s nutritional value. It is evident that food has a significant influence on human beings’ lifestyle. Actually, Food influences a person’s sensory aspects of taste making the individual crave for certain food and consequentially leading to a sedentary lifestyle. The smell, physical appearance, as well as the food texture, tends to influence an individual’s food choice. It is beyond doubt that food is influenced by humans habit and attitude. One can develop a negative attitude and hatred towards a certain food since it does not meet the expected taste or preference. Additionally, due to food preferences based on taste, is certain that most people consume food based on pleasure purposes rather than for nutritional purposes. Therefore, delicious foods that have sweet tastes, therefore, tend to influence people to develop poor and unhealthy eating habits. To add on it, food as an economic resource, it is evident that food influences people to develop entrepreneurship skills and establish businesses dealing in food commodities because food is in high demand and has a bigger market. It is also evident that food influences people to invest in food production so as to avoid food shortage and starvation. Due to its nutritional value and significance to life, humans are influenced to do something in order to meet their basic need, food. Lastly, it is clear that food also influences the government to promote food production and protect food resources in order to avoid starvation and also to have a bigger energetic and productive population.