What factors enable or prevent people from making healthy food choices Essay

What factors enable or prevent people from making healthy food choices - Essay Example Moreover, we would focus our attention on the most vulnerable group subjected to this risk. It is an ethnic minority group living in America and UK. On the basis of researches in the field of obesity around the world and behavioral risk factors among ethnic minority group, we would discuss social and psychological factors influencing on representatives of ethnic minorities making unhealthy food choices. Business infrastructure of UK and America offers numerous restaurants and fast foods for the American nation. A conspicuous consumption of junk food is the first reason for obesity. Why do Americans make such kind of choice and damage themselves? Of course, availability and affordability of fast foods is the first reason for a choice of unhealthy food. Especially this claim is relevant to ethnic minorities, which mainly consist of people with low income, a low level of education about healthy foods and restricted possibilities of physical activities (Powell, 2004). Moreover, people wi th low income work hard and have little time to cook a healthy food. It is more convenient for them to buy cheap and tasty hamburgers and be fed up. Unfortunately, the abundance of calories in this type of food influences on the abundant weight of people. Moreover, it can cause blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases and other illnesses. More than half of American population would soon become obese and 10 percent of UK children are obese currently (Baggott, 2004). Therefore, not only people with low income eat junk food. People who have money often find it more convenient to eat on foot, because they do not have enough time to take care of themselves. Nevertheless, unlike poor people, they are able to visit good restaurants and thus they have more possibilities to eat healthy and tasty food. The rest of people are subjected to external influence of their closest environment. In case a family prefers junk food it is rather hard to have an ability to eat healthy food. As we have alrea dy noted, healthy food has a higher price and it takes time to boil vegetables or to cook them in the oven. Moreover, it is on behalf of an individual to decide whether he would consume healthy food or not. Behavioral factors play a great role at this point. Thus, it depends on an individual’s ability to resist to external pressure in case he is suggested to eat some unhealthy food. If he was brought up as a strong-willed person then he would resist eating unhealthy food for sure. At this point the supposition that social or economic status of a person is prevalent in his choice making of whether to consume unhealthy food or not can be questioned. Nevertheless, statistical data obtained from Department of Health and Human service (2000) shows that individual is being gradually destructed when he is starting to make a choice of unhealthy food (Powell, 2004). He becomes indifferent to his appearance and is becoming an obese person, who then starts avoiding social communication with people around him. Therefore, an individuality of an obese person suffers from his/her inability to take control over his/her gustatory pleasures. Very often such kind of people is emotionally unstable and starts eating huge amounts of unhealthy food in the result of a personal stress, failures or other reasons. The governmental measure taking should be