...Is the Influence of Media on Our Food Choices a Good Thing? Food product choice can be overwhelming and is not made any easier with the influence of media advertisements by companies that want to sell their food products to us. There are many factors that we as consumers must take in to consideration. Do we accept that the advertisement is true, should we trust what is shown to us or should we research the product and compare the cost and nutritional value to other products on the market? Evidently, it’s up to consumer to make a decision on what they eat, nevertheless if we’re frequently exposed to food advertisements every time we read a glossy magazine or watch TV then we may be influenced in what we choose, especially when the advertisement is directed toward children . In this essay I will outline some influence towards one’s food choices and the links between media and children obesity and the effects television food commercials have on children’s food preferences. Food choices are influenced by vast quantity of interrelating factors and theory “it is not solely determined on physiological or nutritional” (Shepherd, 1999, p. 807). Other factor that may influence food choices are biological for example hunger, appetite and taste and then there economic and physical this may be prejudiced by the cost of the food and a individuals income the availably of food choice or education or the skill needed to cook the food. Psychological reason may have a effect on the food we eat...
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...Immigration impact on food choice in Ireland In my essay on how immigration impacts food choice in Ireland, I will be discussing different advantages and disadvantages of immigration ant its impact on the country. However not only about the food choice, but also on how immigration reflected on eating habits of people living in Ireland as well as the differences between earlier ages when immigration was not a common thing and immigrants did not have a big influence in the country as in nowadays when immigration is spreading all over the world, especially after Europe Union has been created, now immigration has big influence on every aspect in the county, especially in food culture. “Food has many roles to play for consumers: it is functional (sustaining life); it plays a key role in our celebrations; it is a conduit for socializing; it is entertaining; it is sensuous and sensual; and it is a way of experiencing new cultures and countries”. (R. Michel & C. Hall, 2003, pg 60). In these days we hardly can imagine our life without different foreign cousins, like for example Chinese, Indian, French, Italian and etc... But we hardly ever think how and why we have such a big variety of food nowadays, and mainly it is because of immigration. As we all already know from media and newspapers that since Ireland became a member of Europe union back in 2002 immigration start growing really fast. For example according to the European magazine that already in 2005 it was estimated...
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...and parents to make good choices. The idea is that they have developed persuasive tools to influence consumer behavior, but some oppose all commercial marketing aimed at children. Some of this marketing techniques are beneficial because of the impact it does on people. Because children in advertisements were real rather than paid actors and they often confused with news items, in which they generally do not understand the commercial intent and manipulation behind advertisements. Source B introduces , “Positive pester power.” This source explains that companies should market healthy foods and good habits...
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...How Junk Food Affects Children Frendester Shanna Williams DeVry University How Junk Food Affects Children It is getting late as a busy mother of three, wife, and nurse is rushing to pick up her kids and head to softball practice. Its thirty minutes until the oldest child is expected to be on the field. The kids are crying and screaming that they are hungry. What is the mother to do? McDonalds bails her out again. The kids get a quick, hot, and fun meal. This mother doesn’t have to face the challenge of balancing work and life situations, especially cooking a dinner. All may seem at ease, but let’s reveal what is really at stake here. Once at softball practice the mother notices that her child is lagging behind during drills, becoming agitated, and is easily fatigued. She also notices that her child is not as lean as the other girls. The other children seem to be running circles around her child. It seems that her child is continuing to become more and more behind the expectations of her team at each practice. What is wrong? She does some research and is quickly taken by surprise. A diet comprised of an increased intake of sugars, sodium, and additives has numerous repercussions. “However, the potential negative psychosocial aspects of obesity, such as poor body image (BI), social isolation, and stigmatization, are also relevant in the lives of youth” (Martin, 2011, p.245). Parents and other youth leaders are strongly encouraged to be the defense against such harsh ramifications...
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... THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND For years, researchers have been studying about the possible influence mass media could do in the lives of the people. And one of the highly influential media is advertising- a paid message that appears in the mass media for the purpose of informing or persuading people about particular products, services, beliefs, or actions. You see ads every day, mostly in the middle of a TV show, A Television Commercial, and it's easy to say "they're just ads" because, at worst, they feel like a nuisance or interruption. A lot of people have difficulty accepting the idea that ads are manipulative because we want to believe we're in complete control of our choices. Advertising exists because there's a product a company wants to sell and they want people to know about it so they can buy it. This much is obvious. There are all kinds of ads, but in general they all aim to keep you from thinking and, instead, make your buying choices based on an emotional response. Basically, if you're not prepared to think—and you often are not when you're watching television or reading a magazine—you'll pretty much accept any suggestion if it is offered to you. Since you're being so passive, you may not even realize its happening. Product advertisements such as beauty products, food and clothing pay a great deal of influence in Filipino viewers, especially young people. The consumer preference id often based what they see on T.V. as portrayed...
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...you think about food. If you have plenty of food, you think about shelter and warmth. Most people in the civilized world have all of these, which creates artificial needs like achievement. When something is advertised, it is made to look like it is the best thing since sliced bread. Just watch an Apple commercial. This will create a "hole" in your mind that provides a new need for you. * If it didn't... It wouldn't exist! I believe advertising does create an artificial 'need' for something - if there is a product that genuinely is needed/useful (such as Google) there is actually very little need for that product to be advertised, as people will spend money on it and use it anyway - the largest advert budgets are for products that we genuinely don't 'need' - such as Coke, McDonalds, new cars, new phones etc. It's vital that Mercedes pretend we 'need' this years car compared to last years that we already drive because otherwise they wouldn't sell any! * The repetition of advertising on television, Internet and newspapers illustrates the capacity of companies to create a need in the consumer’s mind. Marketing not only influences perception, it creates needs for customers. Thanks to the promotion activities, marketers have created new sales techniques, such as the door-to-door salesman. According to Ehrenberg and Goodhardt (1980), advertising permits to design the need of consumer, and also changes attitudes. Ehrenberg explains the influence of...
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...chemical misbalance). There are greater forces that influence eating disorders such as the mass media, family, stress (sense of identity), community (peers/school), and negative body image (which links to mass media). It is important to know these contributions to eating disorders because, the more one knows about the various factors for an eating disorder, the easier it will become to treat these disorders (help one suffering with an eating disorder cope and become healthier.) Throughout the 21st century, eating disorders have become more common among North American teens. With a higher percentage rate of eating disorders in the 21st century, (Sneddon, 1999, p.35) it shows it is an area that should have greater focus. Not only does it have a negative impact on the individual who is battling it, it has a negative impact on society; an impact that could destroy our society – mentally if we (as a community/society) do not help or treat this in the way it should be. An eating disorder can tear apart someone’s morals, eat at their brain – which means with it becoming more common amongst North American teens, the society will suffer in the long run; therefore it is an area that should be focussed on more so we can save our society for the future. Literature Review Eating Disorders Influenced By Mass Media * General idea of mass media: Television, advertisements, magazines, movies, etc * “Messages from the outside can influence body image/the way...
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...education campaigns, and assessing how the social context may influence the ability of health education campaigns to change behaviour in relation to health. Health promotion involves doing things to prevent disease and to improve individual and community’s health. Health promotion offers solutions to many of the health problems facing society such as obesity, lack of exercise and smoking though developing skills and knowledge, community action, supportive environments, healthy public policy and health services. Health promotion helps individuals or communities to increase control over and improve their health and wellbeing. The features of health promotion are that it is based on a holistic view of health; it uses participatory approaches it focuses on the determinants and addressing of health not just health problems and conditions. These include the social, behavioural, environmental and economic conditions that are the root cause of poor health, wellbeing and illness such as education, income, employment, working conditions, social status. Health promotion builds on existing strengths and assets and it uses multiple, complementary approaches to promote health for the individual, community and population as a whole. There are three main approaches to health education. The approaches have been used to as a way to improve the health of individual. The three approaches are, the social marketing approach, roles of mass media and community development approach. There are many different...
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...Life². Our booklets explore important topics and ideas, and provide practical suggestions on ways you can improve your life. Life² helps people to live well - to live happy and wise lives in the modern world. We aim to provide you with ideas, information and tools to help you get more out of life, see things more clearly and live with greater wisdom. We offer lectures, courses, publications and consultancy – on topics from ‘our place in the universe’ through to ‘how to live the life you want’, and from ‘the problem with consumerism’ through to ‘how to be happy’. For more information visit www.lifesquared.org.uk Copyright Richard Docwra 2009 © Published by Life² Life Squared Limited Registration number: 6924570 Registered address: 22 Luther Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN2 9XA www.lifesquared.org.uk info@lifesquared.org.uk Copyright © 2009 Richard Docwra. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the publisher’s permission. Please contact Life² if you wish to syndicate this information. Contents Introduction 4 Advertising 5 Consumerism – beyond advertising 9 The effects of consumerism 14 What is wrong with consumerism? 17 What can we do about it? 27 References Inside back page Introduction Introduction C onsumerism is one of the strongest forces affecting our lives in the modern world. The term ‘consumerism’ does not simply refer to immediate factors in our daily lives...
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...patterns, supported by the findings of primary and secondary research. The primary research conducted by our group will primarily focus on behavioural factors that influence different aspects of students’ consumption, and will predominately be in the form of questionnaires and surveys from a large sample. The primary research steps our group undertakes to will be two-fold: 1. Identify what the target audience is purchasing and the proportion of income spent on particular categories. Clear defined categories will be provided, with examples given Eg. Food, recreation, entertainment, going out, other etc. 2. Examine reasons why money is proportioned in this way, explanations as to what leads students to spend on particular categories, rather than others. Eg. Those who spend more on food have less to eat at home, those spending a lot on clothes/music/magazines/etc. why? Do students have a tendency to save? For what reason? In surveys, open-ended questions may be asked eg. “Your money is proportioned so that 60% is spent on food, and 10% is spent on going out, is there any reason why it is proportioned in this way?” Expected answers may include things like “I’m always out with friends and they’re always out eating, so I tend to spend a large proportion on food’. A brief analysis will be provided outlining the source of student funds; an aspect we consider important to our topic. While some university...
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...your body change so quickly? It was like almost overnight. It starts with just being a little overweight to having to buy some more jeans. Facts announced by Dr. Neil Hutcher (2011) “Obesity is a disease that affects 34 percent of adults age 20 and over in the United States, which amounts to more than 72 million people. About 32.2 percent of American men and about 35.5 percent of American women are obese.” Gaining weight drastically is a good sign of obesity. For a person to be considered obese his or her body mass index has to be over 30 or weight is 20 percent or more above normal weight. Researched by the Control Disease Center (2010) mentioned that one-third of U.S adults are obese as of 2010 and rates remain high; “Obesity is common, serious, and costly. In 2009, about 2.4 million more adults were obese than in 2007. This epidemic has affected every part of the United States. In every state, more than 15% of adults are obese, and in nine states, over 30% of adults are obese.” There are many dangers to being obese because it may influence your risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, gallbladder disease, age-related macular degeneration and breast cancer, and other types of cancer such as; prostate and colon cancer. Obesity is very common amongst Americans and has been for some decades now, but why the sudden increase? I have personally experience this condition of gaining weight due to lack of exercise, overeating, and Depo-Provera...
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...Child obesity is a very serious concern. Statistics state that one in every five children are obese. With a statistic so frightening, the question that is being raised is, who is the blame? I believe parents should be held accountable for child obesity because as parents they have the most influence and control over the childhood habits that may result in obesity. Child obesity is preventable if mothers and fathers realize the dramatic effect obesity has on the child and their future in society. Fast paced lives and tough economic times have made of all incomes and backgrounds busier than ever, constantly pressed for time and struggling to meet the demands of work and family life. With parents living in a time that is so rushed, parents are seemingly too tired or pressed for time or just simply not concerned and that results in them feeding their children whatever is quicker which most times it would be fast food restaurants that are passed on the way home. Some parents just lack the knowledge as to how to prepare a healthy fulfilling meal for their family so they also result to fast food or just something that is just not healthy for their kids that can be popped in the microwave. Despite the fast pace of the world in which children are being raised today, parents need to realize the importance of taking a time-out and being there for the needs of the family. This may include having to lose out on time in other areas in order to be home to cook a well prepared meal a few times...
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... Contents 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………….Page 2 2. Risk Factors………………………………………………………………….Page 3. Personal Health Behaviours………………………………………………Page 4 4. Roles…………………………………………………………………………..Page 4 1. Roles of Family ……………………………………………………...Page 5 2. Roles of Friends………………………………………………………Page 5 3. Roles of Others……………………………………………………….Page 5 5. Future Implications…………………………………………………………Page 6 6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………Page 6 Bibliography……………..………………………………………………………..Page 7 1. Introduction Lifestyle diseases are health problems that are brought about because of the lifestyle choices or the way a person lives. Lifestyle diseases can be prevented by altering the food you eat or the things you choose to do. Doing something as simple as walking to school instead of riding a car can influence your health. Heart disease is a disease that affects the function of the heart and impairs the normal functioning. It affects around 1.4 million Australians and kills 59 Australians each day; estimating one Australian every 24 minutes. Heart disease is caused by many risk factors that can be prevented. Shown by the graph below, in 2011 to 2012, the number of people who has heart disease increased with age. More than quarter of all Australians aged 75 years old and over, has heart disease. The graph also shows that heart disease is more common amongst men than in women. Coronary artery disease also known as CAD is one of the most common...
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...Time to Reverse Childhood Obesity Brian Brown ENG/147 May 11, 2015 Kevin Phillips Obesity in Children Is childhood obesity a personal choice or genetics? It could be both. Studies have indicated that a genetic predisposition to obesity may exist, but that the interaction of genetic and environmental factors may also cause obesity (Larsen, Mandleco, & Williams, 2006). Children ages 12 and under account for one-third of those with Type 2 diabetes resulting from improper nutrition, lack of exercise, and/or poor education. The ramifications are increased health care costs and a generation of children that may need to be medicated for life. The key is change. Attitude, nutrition and education can reverse this epidemic and allow these children to create a healthy lifestyle. Children with Type 2 Diabetes The number of children with Type 2 diabetes (Mellitus) has increased over the years due to childhood obesity affecting the metabolism. Before the 1990’s, this condition was diagnosed in middle-aged to older adults and was considered normal. According to Copeland, Chalmers & Brown (2005), “During the past decade, pediatricians have witnessed a profound change in that the epidemiology of diabetes is being diagnosed in children and adolescence at an alarming rate.” Children ages 12 and under account for 30% of those with Type 2 Diabetes in the United States. Obesity has become big business in the medical arena as it also relates to potential...
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...eating habits which all play an important part in childhood obesity? The first question to answer is what is childhood obesity? According to the Mayo Clinic (Mayo Clinic, Childhood Obesity 2010), “childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents. It occurs when a child is well above the normal weight for his or her age and height. Generally consumption of foods high in sugar and fats lead to obesity.” According to research, we all have and need fat tissue in our bodies. (UM, 2010) When there is too much body fat, the result is obesity (Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers, 2007, Saunders). There are many factors that contribute to causing obesity including: physical activity, lifestyle, eating habits, environment, family and genetic inheritance (Mayo clinic, childhood Obesity 2010). The greatest impact on a child and their eating and exercising habits comes from their environment. A child that comes from a healthy environment learns good food choices and exercise habits. If a child comes from an environment where food choices and exercise aren’t important this can lead to obesity. A child that is encouraged to eat healthy and exercise will consume...
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