What factors determine/influence the food choice people make?

Food, which is the only energy source for human, is essential in peoples’ life. It has many different kinds which gives people different kinds of nutrition. Go through the thousands of years of evolution, diet have become not only an important part of peoples’ life but also a culture. People who are living all over the world have different food choices. The three important factors that influence the food choices people make are environment, culture and diet knowledge.

People who live in different environments have different diet habits. In Asian countries, people eat rice and noodles as staple food. Subtropical climate in Asian countries gives rice a comfortable condition to grow in. In contrast, in Europe, people eat bread, beef, potatoes, and pasta, because Europe has developed animal husbandry and a main crop is wheat. Another example is the different diet habits between the south part of China and the north part in China. People who live in south of China eat rice more than cooked wheat food, but this condition is opposite in north of China. In addition, people who live in the middle part of China love to eat spicy food more than any other Chinese places.

People who live in different cultures eat different food. I was born in China and I came to America about two years ago. I can see there are different food choices which are based on two different cultures. The American religion and philosophy make people more rational on the food choice which is based on nutrition, energy, and society. For instance, may people who are busy in working would choose fast food; many American families eat roughage more often. As a result, most of Americans’ are more robust than Chinese and American dietary mode is always health. In old China, there is a proverb that says “Food is the paramount necessity of the people”, so meal is extremely important in China. People very much enjoy the process in eating. As a result, Chinese foods are more focused on the color, aroma and taste than their nutrition and Chinese diet culture is very complicated. For
example, China has more than two hundred kinds of seasoning and has more than fifty ways to cook chicken. The chef in China is a high-paying job; a professional chef needs to approve by specialist agencies.

However, food choices can be very different in a country because diet knowledge influence people to choose different food. Researches shows well-educated people has the more healthy diet habits. In contrast, people who don’t have good diet knowledge can get them in unhealthy living conditions. For example, my mum was a full-time housewife before I came to America, and she has full of knowledge in diet. One of her favorite TV show was about having a healthy diet; therefore, she always tried to make a complete nutrition meal for me. Every dinner she made had both meat and vegetables, she made bean products and cooked wheat food at least twice a week, and we ate many different kinds of fruits every day. As a result, I have good diet habits and am healthier than most Chinese teenagers I have ever seen. Moreover, I have hardly ever been sick.