Antecedents of self-regulation with respect to eating behaviour

Abstract

The role of consumption of healthy food in achieving and maintaining good health is widely recognised. A healthy diet helps protect against malnutrition in all its forms, as well as non communicable diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. Self-management of habits that enhance health and those that impair it is essential to understand effective health behaviour. Research guided by various psychosocial theories of health behavior has added to understanding of how cognitive and social factors contribute to human health and disease. The factors affecting eating behaviour include sociocultural norms, perception about self regulation, food, interpersonal influences, impulsivity, individual taste preferences, cost, availability, resources for eating, nutritional knowledge, cooking skill, time availability, prior eating habits, and future health concerns.(Guerrieri et al, 2007; Trofholz et al.,2016). This paper is an attempt to assimilate the antecedents of self regulation with respect to eating behaviour, from review of literature, and from an exploratory study. The study posits that the personality related factors, lifestyle/ situation related factors, Acquired knowledge/Culinary skills and perceived taste of healthy food could be the antecedents of self-regulation with respect to eating.