Determinants of food choice: Relationships with obesity and weight control

The decision to eat, and to eat particular foods, varies for different indi viduals and situations. Individual differences in food likes and desires de velop throughout life because of differing food experiences and attitudes. There are many internal and external cues, not just stimulation from foods or hunger, which can trigger the immediate desire to eat or orient eating t oward certain foods. Food desires and intake are an outcome of interactions between these cues and more stable individual physiological and psychologi cal characteristics. Overweight and obese individuals show a tendency towar d greater liking and selection of energy-dense foods, which may contribute to development and maintenance of these conditions. However, although likin g (pleasure from eating) is an important part of food choice, it may make o nly a modest contribution to overall variation in food choice and eating be haviors. Indeed, difficulties of weight control may reflect problems with c ues and motivations to eat, rather than with heightened pleasure derived fr om eating. Paradoxically, individuals highly concerned with food intake and weight control may be particularly susceptible to thoughts, emotions, and situational cues that can prompt overeating and undermine their attempts to restrain eating. Repeat dieting, high day-to-day fluctuations in intakes, and attempts to enforce highly rigid control over eating all seem to be cou nterproductive to weight control efforts and may disrupt more appropriate f ood choice behaviors. Longer-term weight maintenance solutions and programs that offer a degree of structuring of the personal food environment, while retaining flexibility in choices, therefore, may be particularly beneficia l in weight management.