Food is central to the lives of all, and has for centuries been celebrated in art, poetry and song. More recently, media interest has focused public attention on the food we eat, and its influence on physical health and mental well-being. However, it is only since the 1980s that social scientists and social psychologists in particular have paid significant attention to the important topic of food. This work reviews the research from the perspective of social psychology.

&>Examines the biological, psychological, and sociocultural influences on eating behaviors Psychology of Eating provides a multi-disciplinary overview to the study of eating; it examines current research in biology, nutrition, psychology, and more. The text's balance of major theories, historical and current research, and real-life examples enables students to understand and interact with the material presented. This title is available in a variety of formats - digital and print. Pearson offers its titles on the devices students love through Pearson's MyLab products, CourseSmart, Amazon, and more.

Our eating decisions are guided by several psychological dimensions: cognitive, emotional, value-based, social, and behavioural. The social psychology of eating helps us understand these dimensions and how we can promote healthy and sustainable eating to improve people's wellbeing. What is most important in deciding what we want to eat? What drives people to go vegan? Do we tend to eat more when we are nervous? Does it change our behavior when we sit at the table with others? Why do we put off starting the diet until the next week? How does online and offline communication influence our eating behaviour? Is it possible to help people change their eating habits thanks to artificial intelligence? These and other questions are answered in this book, with up-to-date literature references and pointers to the most promising developments in the field. An essential text for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers in the fields of psychology and nutrition.

With its primary focus on the psychology of eating from a social, health, and clinical perspective, the second edition of The Psychology of Eating: From Healthy to Disordered Behavior presents an overview of the latest research into a wide range of eating-related behaviors Features the most up-to-date research relating to eating behavior Integrates psychological knowledge with several other disciplines Written in a lively, accessible style Supplemented with illustrations and maps to make literature more approachable

Tracing culinary customs from the Stone Age to the stovetop range, from the raw to the nuked, this book elucidates the factors and myths shaping Americans' eating habits. The diversity of food habits and rituals is considered from a psychological perspective. Explored are questions such as Why does the working class prefer sweet drinks over bitter? Why do the affluent tend to roast their potatoes? and What is so comforting about macaroni and cheese anyway? The many contradictions of Americans' relationships with food are identified: food is both a primal source of sensual pleasure and a major cultural anxiety; Americans adore celebrity chefs, but no one cooks at home anymore; the gourmet health food industry is soaring, yet a longtime love affair with fast food endures. The future of food is also covered, including speculation about whether traditional meals will one day evolve into the mere popping of a nutrition capsule.

Eating enough food to meet nutritional needs and maintain good health and good performance in all aspects of lifeâ€"both at home and on the jobâ€"is important for all of us throughout our lives. For military personnel, however, this presents a special challenge. Although soldiers typically have a number of options for eating when stationed on a base, in the field during missions their meals come in the form of operational rations. Unfortunately, military personnel in training and field operations often do not eat their rations in the amounts needed to ensure that they meet their energy and nutrient requirements and consequently lose weight and potentially risk loss of effectiveness both in physical and cognitive performance. This book contains 20 chapters by military and nonmilitary scientists from such fields as food science, food marketing and engineering, nutrition, physiology, psychology, and various medical specialties. Although described within a context of military tasks, the committee's conclusions and recommendations have wide-reaching implications for people who find that job-related stress changes their eating habits.

This title explores the psychological processes involved in the selection and consumption of foods and drink. The exposition is firmly linked to research evidence on the cognitive, socio-economic and physiological influences on the desire to eat and drink. The basic theory is that appetite is a learned response to a recognized complex of cues from foods, the body and the social and physical environment.; The volume starts with infant-care giver interactions in feeding, then moves on to consider how physical and social maturation in Western culture affects attitudes to foods, concentrating on the phenomena of ordinary dieting and the extremes of disordered eating. The concluding chapters deal with the process within the lives of individual consumers which causes the same eating habits to form in different segments of society. It also looks at food technology, marketing and governmental regulation.; "The Psychology of Nutrition" tackles questions about what goes on in eaters' and drinkers' minds about the foods and beverages they are consuming, and about the cultural meaning of the eating occasion in industrialized cultures.