Why We Eat What We Eat

Tuesday 24 February 2009

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The preface of the book which is the main part of explaining aspects of why we eat what we eat begins with:

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some books are to be chewed and digested . . . "

Francis Bacon: Of Seeming Wise

To read the book, return to the main website, go to "Pubs" [Publications] and then "Are We Really - etext" in the side nav panel.
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Why We Eat What We Eat

In my book, “Are We Really What We Eat”, I have chosen several groups of influences on the food we consume. They are:

Social Influences

Economic Influences

The Consumer himself

“Mind and Body” Influences

Geographical Influences

Technical Influences

Provider

Food Habits

Food Choice

In the next stage of my analysis, I identify these aspects:

1 Social Influences

Social tradition

Social structure

Group pressures

Prestige value of food

Functionalism – food habits as satisfying social needs

2 Economic Influences

The market

Transport

Economic availability

Availability of fuel

3 The Consumer himself

Health, work and play habits

Experience

Perception of the nutritional value of the food

4 “Mind and Body” Influences

Physiological – inherited features

Psychological – Maslow

Palatibility

5 Geographical Influences

Environmental factors

Regionalism

Climate

Soil

Seasons

Location

Transport

6 Technical Influences

Food processing:

Ease of preparation

Nutritional value

7 Provider

Who pays?

Who cooks?

8 Food Habits

Food habit research

9 Food Choice

Terminology

Clusters of determinants

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That is enough to indicate the general approach I take to explaining some aspects of why we eat what we eat. It is no more than a summary and a large number of additional dimensions of the why and what of eating are dealt with.

As the present website system does not accommodate charts and tables etc, if you would like more, go back to the main website, then Pubs, then the etext link.

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The rest of the explanation of these aspects is there and the list is on page 18 in different format. That introduces a model of why we eat what we eat which is given at the end of the book. (“The Final Model” has its own link on the external link page.)

One aspect of viewing books as etexts is navigation and another is the quality of the text especially when magnified. It may be possible to improve the situation later.