Attitudes to food and eating behavior

Everyone’s attitudes to eating disorders are different, however to distinguish between an eating disorder and a 'faddy' we have to look at the purpose and the consistency of the behaviour and whether or not the person maintains some degree of control over the eating behaviour. When food is used to solve emotional issues it may become a problem.

Explanations of attitudes to food and eating behaviour:

Social learning - This is an increases on the impacts that are observing other people has is on our own attitudes and behaviour.

Parental modelling- This is very influential in children as the parents decide what food used brought and served in the home. Brown and Ogden (2004) found consistent correlations between parents and their children in terms of snack intake. 

Media effects- From places such as the TV and magazines. Maclntyre (1998) found the media affects those what we eat and attitudes to certain foods. However it is thought that to some extent it is down to personal circumstances such as income and age. 

Cultural influences-  

Ethnicity- Body dissatisfaction and related eating concerns and disorders are more common characteristic of white women than black or Asian women (Powell and Khan 1995). Other research evidence to support this was conducted by Ball and Kenardy (2002) who studied over 14,000 women between the age of 18 and 23…