Relationship between Our Diets, Our Cultures, and Our Life Spans - Essay Example

In this vein, this paper discusses the contribution of behavioral genetic research to the understanding of individual differences in health from infancy to old age in order to better understand the relationship between our diets, cultures, and life spans. The paper begins with an overview of the behavioral genetic perspective followed by a brief summary of the designs and statistical analyses that are used to assess the etiology of genetic and environmental influences. Next, the behavioral genetic research that focuses on health issues across major developmental life stages is reviewed, and the chapter concludes with a discussion of its implications for theory, future research, and intervention.

However, this analysis is not just restricted to the genetical perspective alone. Diet patterns come from all kinds of sources. It is believed that the society or culture in which one resides has an influence on the ideals of beauty and appearance that are at times difficult to attain and this is particularly an intense trend amongst western societies .The way these patterns will influence the food patterns of the young and older generations will subsequently affect the longevity of the population based on the resultant diet patterns.

Although such factors sometimes spring from the self-perception of the patients and the messages they are getting from the outside world about their bodies this has a lot to do with the traditional and popular culture of the society. In the West for example and now in many “globalized” dimensions of the world, the modern media promotes extremely thin dimensions of body size as the very epitome of a successful life and this causes a general sense of dissatisfaction amongst the young impressionable audiences.

The dietary influences from such factors can cause a number of eating disorders like anorexia as the impressionable members of the audience try to live up to the high standards created by the glitzy models and their size zero dimensions.Of course, there are other factors at play here. Academics have also stressed upon the likelihood of strained family relationships in this regard because studies show that they stir up negative self esteem issues with in the young people and this may affect diet patterns and ultimately contribute to the shortening of the over all life span.

J Wardle et al (2003) in his article, “Socioeconomic disparities in cancer-risk behaviors in adolescence: baseline results from the Health and Behaviour in Teenagers Study (HABITS) has attempted to find the link between Socio-economic factors and how the presence or the lack thereof of such factors will contribute to the long term risk of cancer in adolescents. He has used five factors are to include the Body Mass Index of the subjects, their food intake, smoking and tendency to exercise and the subject base is to be assessed with in 4320 students ages 11 to 12, from 36 schools.