Not surprisingly, a recent review of published studies found a strong association between the availability of fruits and vegetables at home and whether children, adolescents, and adults eat these foods. The food that families keep at home and how family members share meals influences what and how much they eat. This article offers a brief and selective overview of the research on both the settings and societal factors that shape what we eat.įood Environment Research by Setting Familiesįamilies influence children’s dietary choices and risk of obesity in a number of ways, and children develop food preferences at home that can last well into adulthood. They have also examined broader societal influences on individual food choices, from food marketing to government policies. ( 1, 3, 4) They have looked at how the settings in which we live-from homes and neighborhoods to worksites and schools-influence which foods are available, how much they cost, and whether the people in those settings are eating healthy diets. Over the past 20 years, research on our “obesogenic” food environment has grown, and scientists have approached the topic from a number of angles. Environmental barriers to healthy eating are often greater for people who have lower incomes, less education, and language barriers, ( 5, 6) and traditional healthy diet education campaigns often fail to reach them. And it may help address one of the more troubling trends in the obesity epidemic: the higher rates of obesity found in low-income and racial/ethnic minority groups in the U.S. Understanding how the food environment influences our weight can help policymakers identify ways to change the environment-and in turn, reduce obesity risk for everyone. View The Forum at Harvard School of Public Health’s webcast, “ Why We Overeat: The Toxic Food Environment and Obesity.”.
Some even call this food environment “toxic” because of the way it corrodes healthy lifestyles and promotes obesity. and many parts of the world, the so-called food environment-the physical and social surroundings that influence what we eat-makes it far too hard to choose healthy foods, and all too easy to choose unhealthy foods. But our choices are shaped by the complex world in which we live-by the kinds of food our parents make available at home, by how far we live from the nearest supermarket or fast food restaurant, even by the ways that governments support farmers. What we choose to eat plays a large role in determining our risk of gaining too much weight. How Our Surroundings Influence What We Eat
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