Health Behavior -Eating Healthy - Research Paper Example

 Health Behavior -Eating Healthy Introduction Eating healthy, nutritious and well-balanced diet alongside some physical exercise is a prerequisite for good health. Healthy eating calls for consuming carbohydrates, high-quality proteins, vitamins, heart-healthy fats, minerals and water in our foods and also cutting down on consumption of processed foods, saturated fats and alcohol. The Medical Dictionary defines health promoting behavior as "any personal action to sustain or increase wellness" [The1]. Therefore eating healthy is definitely a health promoting behavior as it compels one to follow standard health practices with regard to one's dietary habits. Our everyday food choices have a profound impact on our health that has a major contribution in our well being and personality. Therefore, I chose "eating healthy" for my research paper because I perceive it as a significant health behavior. While numerous health problems are associated with unhealthy eating, the most significant one is obesity. One prominent biological factor that impacts healthy eating is the unbalanced amount of chemicals in the brain of an individual responsible for controlling hunger, appetite, and digestion. Similarly psychological factors include depression, anxiety, anger, stress, loneliness, and low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy and lack of control in life. Among the sociological factors one important factor is the stringent criteria of beauty that implies only on women and men of specific body weights and shapes thus promotes imbalanced and unhealthy eating. No habit can be changed overnight and same is the case with adopting healthy eating habit. One does not need to overburden oneself and become strict all of a sudden with regard to one's diet. On the contrary gradually changing ones eating habits would assist in maintaining healthy diet in the long run. In order to have a complete insight into healthy eating behavior and comprehensively understand its associated pros and cons the necessity to review the professional literature has become inevitable. Hence in the next section I shall be throwing light on professional literature relevant to healthy eating. Professional Literature While various health problems are caused by unhealthy eating, the most prominent one is obesity because it increases the risk of several other critical diseases like diabetes, arthritis, stroke, hypertension, lung diseases, bone fractures, cardiovascular diseases and cancers manifold [Med]. According to the World Health Organization, 2012 Report: “The earlier overweight and obesity problem arise, the higher the risk of subsequent health problems.” (World Health Organization) Obesity is a body condition with too much body fat contributing towards an overweight body. It is the direct consequence of an unhealthy diet rich in saturated fats, trans fats and cholesterol. It is estimated that unhealthy eating habits have resulted in obesity epidemic in the United States under which one-third (33.8%) of U.S. adults, 17% (12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged between 2-19 years are victim of obesity. As unhealthy eating contributes greatly towards obesity, it is significant to highlight the main biopsychosocial factors responsible for unhealthy eating behavior [Ame]. Biopsychosocial Factors Influencing Healthy Eating The three biopsychosocial factors that determine healthy eating habits are balanced production of appetite regulating chemicals in mind, depression and stress and social standard of an ideal thin body perceived as an ultimate emblem of beauty, respectively. Since these three biopsychosocial factors collectively interact to determine the eating behavior of individuals therefore they will be reviewed in the professional literature. 1. Biological Factor One most important biological factor contributing to healthy eating is the balanced amount of chemicals in mind that control hunger, satiety, etc. These chemicals extend biologically based feeling of satiety that the stomach is full and one must stop eating. It has been depicted through studies that people who overeat, their stomachs stretch or enlarge to accommodate greater amounts of food that is beyond their capacity. Therefore when chemicals associated with digestive metabolism become unbalanced, these people are inclined to irregular and unhealthy eating patterns. For this same reason defects associated with neurotransmitters that regulate appetite are considered crucial to determine healthy eating behavior [Pub1]. 2. Psychological Factor Several psychological factors may be held responsible for an unhealthy eating behavior like low self esteem, a continuous urge to achieve perfection with regard to one's body weight and shape etc. However the most significant psychological factor is stress because it influences food choices and tends to enhance maladaptive metabolic responses to unhealthy meals. Both depression and stress cast a negative impact on vagal activation which is triggered by vagus nerve to innervate tissues involved in the digestion, absorption, and metabolism of nutrients [NAM]. 3. Sociological Factor It has been observed that sociological factors compel particularly those people to adopt unhealthy eating who idealize the Western beauty ideal of thinness. Images shown via mass media like television, advertising and magazines are unrealistic, photo edited and modified to depict a socially perceived image of ‘perfection’ that is totally fake. People under such influences believe that beauty is equivalent to thinness for females and a lean muscular body for males. Thus they have greater tendency of developing body dissatisfaction and deviating from a healthy well balanced diet to accomplish their idealism [Pub]. By reviewing the professional literature regarding the biopsychosocial factors it became evident that no single factor but a multitude of biopsychosocial factors are responsible for determining the overall eating behavior of individuals. Unhealthy eating is a critical condition that originates from a combination of prolonged behavioral, biological, psychological and social factors. People conscious about obesity seem to be aware of the fact that various biopsychosocial factors are fundamental contributing factors towards unhealthy eating, but they fail to utilize this information in a coherent manner to devise a judgment of their own vulnerability to harm. People need to be made aware about the personal risk factors associated with obesity and the fact that both unintentional and intentional unhealthy eating choices further aggravate obesity [Med].    After discussing the professional literature regarding the biopsychosocial factors the necessity to discuss the theoretical aspects of healthy eating has become even more significant in order to analyze how theoretical approaches are instrumental for determining healthy eating. Theoretical Aspects Theory of Planned Behavior One of the significant health behavior theories is the theory of planned behavior that defines the link between beliefs and behavior. It was coined by Icek Ajzen as an enhancement of the predictive power of the theory of reasoned action by embedding perceived behavioral control. It is one of the most fundamental persuasion theories that can effectively analyze how people can be persuaded to adopt healthy eating [The2]. Health Belief Model The theory comprises of three models: 1. Attitude towards the specific act or behavior, 2. The normative component our belief about what others expect us to do, and 3. Perceived behavioral control which is the degree to which a person can control the behavior. Reasoned action/planned behavior The theory of planned behavior suggests that more favorable attitudes towards a specific act, more favorable subjective norms and greater perceived behavioral control strengthen the intention to perform the behavior [The2]. Precaution adoption In contrast to other affective processing models, the theory of planned behavior does not give consideration to emotional variables such as threat, fear, mood and negative or positive feelings and only assesses them to a certain limit. With regard to health-related behaviors where in most cases individuals' health behaviors are affected by their personal emotions this may become a significant drawback for anticipating health-related behaviors. Poor predictability for health-related behavior in past health researches may rightly be attributed to this loophole of TPB. Behavioral theory (operant conditioning) The theory of planned behavior elaborates that an individual's attitude towards behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control together mould and determine his/her behavioral intentions. It believes that a person's intention of performing a given behavior is the best predictor of whether or not the person will actually perform the behavior. It is based on the premise that the best predictor of an actual behavior is the behavior a person actually intends to do [The2]. Self-efficacy In addition to attitudes and subjective norms that constitute the theory of reasoned action the theory of planned behavior also encompasses the concept of perceived behavioral control, which originates from self-efficacy theory (SET). Self-efficacy was propounded by Bandura in 1977 under the social cognitive theory. According to the theory of self-efficacy expectations like motivation, performance, and feelings of frustration associated with repeated failures decide effect and behavioral reactions. Moreover self-efficacy can be defined as the conviction that compels one to efficiently perform the required behavior to achieve the outcomes. Bandura states that self-efficacy is the most significant precondition for behavioral change because it determines the beginning of coping behavior. Past investigations depict that peoples' behavior is greatly influenced by their confidence in their ability to perform a particular behavior. Since the self-efficacy theory endeavors to describe various relationships between beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behavior, the SET has been broadly applied to health-related fields like physical activity, mental health in preadolescents and exercise. Theory of Planned behavior and Healthy Eating The theory of planned behavior states that when an individual possesses a favorable attitude towards a particular behavior, perceives that other people expect him to perform that behavior and also feels him capable enough to execute the behavior, he will definitely have a greater inclination towards that particular behavior. Hence by applying this theory in the field of healthy eating we can predict how individuals' behavior and attitudes can be influenced to engage them in healthy eating (for instance by making healthy food available). Various studies, conducted on children and adolescents in diverse cultural settings encourage the concept of utilizing the central constructs of theory of planned behavior for anticipating adolescents’ behavioral intention towards healthy eating, although they involve a complex combination of factors affecting healthy and unhealthy eating habits of children and adolescents [Gan12]. It is found that TPB is instrumental for predicting factors directly related to healthy eating behavior but not for anticipating the indirect influence of intention. This means that other factors besides intention are significant for triggering healthy eating behavior and can be utilized to establish intervention strategies to encourage healthy eating practices in individuals. Since barriers, subjective norm, attitude, and self-efficacy are important factors influencing healthy eating behaviors they must be embedded in program design [The2]. For instance initially one can start with substituting water for high-calorie and sugary drinks. As a second step one can switch from full-fat to low-fat dairy products. Likewise opting lean meats instead of fatty cuts and whole-wheat grains instead of refined grains would greatly assist in lowering unhealthy fats and increasing dietary fiber. It is an evident fact that fresh fruits and vegetables have less sodium content as compared to canned ones. Also consuming fresh, crunchy fruits like carrots, apples and cucumber slices at snack times is healthier than other fatty and salty chips. Conclusion The quintessence of above discussion is that healthy eating helps body to perform everyday functions properly, maintains optimal body weight and also assists in preventing diseases. All our physical activities, our diet, our weight and diseases are directly linked with our eating habits and are directly responsible for our overall health that make healthy eating not only an option but a necessity. So it is quite essential to adopt healthy eating in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Nutrition professionals must be encouraged to collaborate with community leaders to impart sound nutritional knowledge to individuals. Also parents and caretakers must be encouraged to make arrangements for healthy foods in order to reduce individuals’ perceived barriers to healthy eating right from their childhood. For further information following links will prove beneficial: http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/persuade-people-eat-healthy-5969.html This website covers wide issues related to healthy eating like making healthy eating affordable, healthy eating on vacation and how to adopt healthy eating practices etc. Another beneficial source is: http://www.eatingwell.com/ This website discusses healthy cooking, food news and remedies for ailments to ensure healthy living. Bibliography The1: , (The Free Medical Dictionary), Med: , (MedLine Plus), Ame: , (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists), Pub1: , (PubMed), NAM: , (NAMI-National Alliance on Mental Illness), Pub: , (PubMed.gov), The2: , (The Theory of Planned Behavior), Gan12: , (Ganasegeran, Al-Dubai and Qureshi), Read More