Influences on Dietary Intake and Nutritional Health
Gabrielle Elmes (497977) Health & Social Care Level 3 (year 2) UNIT 22 TASK 2
22/4/2021
P3 - Explain possible influences on dietary intake
There are so many factors that can influence one's dietary intake such as: Lifestyle
factors, Economic Factors, Dietary Habits, Health Factors, Socio-cultural issues,
Education and Social Policy. To show you the possible influences on dietary intake, I
will be using these case studies:
TOM
aged 18 who is diabetic. He has just started at university, studying politics and
living in halls.
DIABETES MELLITUS - (Health Factor) Diabetes is a condition in which the
hormone insulin is either not being produced by the pancreas, is being produced in
inadequate amounts or is not being used properly in the body. There are two types
of diabetes (Type 1 and 2) If left untreated, the most severe case of diabetes would
lead to death due to the lack of glucose in the cells and vital organs. Type 1 (Most
severe treated with insulin injections) Type 2 (Less severe treated with tablets and
diet plan)
This will influence Tom’s dietary intake in many ways. For example, if he eats or
drinks foods that cause high blood sugar such as sugary drinks, foods with trans
fats, baked goods etc. this can lead to his blood sugar getting too high, this can be
fatal with diabetes so he must make sure to only have sugary and fat filled foods in
moderation and keep track of his blood sugars after and before eating. In addition to
this, he must make sure to have sweets and sugar in moderation to make sure his
blood sugar does not get too low. If he does not have a healthy diet with his
diabetes, this can lead to further issues such as eye problems, nerve problems,
heart disease etc. So it is very important he has a balanced and healthy diet. He
must make sure, even though he lives in the halls with friends and they are likely to
eat fat filled foods, he does not let this influence his dietary intake to cause problems
with his diabetes.
SNACKING - (Dietary Habits) Living in university he is likely to want to eat fatty
snacks like his friend a lot however, he must make sure he keeps his snacking
healthy so his diabetes stays in check. For example if his friends are eating
chocolate and crisps all the time, he can have this if he keeps his blood sugars in
check, but he must make sure to primarily snack healthily with fruit, salad etc.
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,FOOD AVAILABILITY - (Dietary Habits) Another influence on Tom’s dietary intake
will be food availability in his university halls. It is likely he will eat the food available
to him and sit around such as pizza, chocolate, burgers etc. the things that other
university students eat. And it is likely there will be alcoholic drinks and sodas readily
available. This influence on his dietary intake might cause flare ups in his diabetes.
To better influence his dietary intake, he should make sure to shop for healthy food
to keep in his house to manage his health condition in terms of influencing his dietary
intake.
SOCIAL EATING AND DRINKING - (Lifestyle) University lifestyle is full of eating out
and drinking in bars regularly. This is likely to influence specifically the quality of his
dietary intake in terms of his diabetes management. When eating out, Teenagers
and young adults in university are likely to want to ‘treat themselves’ on these nights
and indulge in high-fat, salty and sugary foods (and they do this regularly) It is ok on
occasions but especially with his diabetes, Tom must make sure to eat healthier
foods when out with his friends since they do it alot and make sure to take the
correct amount of influence to cater to what he is going to eat. Social eating and
drinking in university is also likely to mean drinking, drinks such as beer have 3.6g of
carbohydrates inside which is not particularly good for diabetes. However in a social
eating and drinking environment, his dietary intake is likely to be influenced by these
events.
COST OF FOOD - This is a major factor that will influence Tom’s dietary intake of
especially healthy foods needed for his diabetes. University students are likely to be
on a low budget especially if they have sometimes moved out on their own and now
have to pay for rent, bills etc. and the cost of healthy food in supermarkets is likely to
influence his ability to access a healthy dietary intake. However, some foods such as
chicken and pork tend to be cheaper than beef and lamb and are healthier for you,
so this is likely to influence a more healthy dietary intake in some sense.
Supermarkets tend to do two different food ranges: The more expensive range and
their own label range which is cheaper. Since Tom is more likely to buy the cheaper
option, this will influence his dietary intake because the lower budget items have
been shown to contain lower quality items, more fat , salt and sugar. While the
higher quality items tend to influence a healthier diet however cost more so
university students' dietary intake, like Tom ,are influenced by the cost of food.
In addition to this, the fact that fast food places tend to cost less than higher quality
restaurants. This is definitely going to influence his dietary intake as he is more likely
to go with the cost effective, fast but unhealthier option.
In addition to all of this, the subject matter he has chosen to study ‘Politics’ is also
likely to influence his dietary intake for two reasons, first of, it will influence his
dietary intake since he is not studying a health science meaning he won’t properly
understand the effect of his diet which will influence him to eat foods that are
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,unhealthier without knowing the consequences fully. Second of all, going into politics
might influence his dietary intake as he might stop eating certain foods because of
his political stance on a subject (such as not eating meat because he thinks it is
politically incorrect)
LAURA
aged 30 who works part time as a nurse in the local A & E department and
lives with her husband and two children aged 9 and 6.
MEAL PATTERNS - As a nurse Laura’s diet will be influenced by the meal pattern of
a typical nurse. What I mean by this is that nurses have the habit of ‘grazing’ this
means that when a fellow nurse brings in cookies, chocolate, sweets and other
unhealthy snacks etc. they are likely to join in and innocently snack instead of eating
a proper lunch etc. because they are busy. This means they are missing out on
eating a healthy lunch, breakfast and grazing on fatty foods which will definitely
influence their diet. A study recently done by the University of Maryland's School of
Nursing in 2012 found the following on dietary influence when becoming a nurse:
‘’that 55 percent of the 2,103 female nurses they surveyed were obese, citing
job stress and the effect on sleep of long, irregular work hours as the cause.’’
This in itself shows the dietary influence of being a nurse as a profession.
SNACKING - Again, nurses have the habit of ‘snacking’ on the job to deal with long
work hours and quickly satisfy hunger so they can continue working. The types of
snacks brought in usually consist of cake, cookies, biscuits etc. and as mentioned in
the research above, we can see that this has an effect on their diet overall.
OCCUPATION - As a nurse, Laura will be on her feet alot which causes her to exert
more energy than let’s say a desk worker. This will influence her dietary intake by
causing her to require more food to keep up with the energy being exerted faster
through stress, being on her feet and so on. Also, her occupation is very
unpredictable meaning planned healthy meal times are harder to achieve since an
emergency can present itself at any time. This means, her diet will be influenced by
this fast paced job and cause her to possibly eat more fast and readily available
foods.
EATING AT HOME - Since Laura is a mother to young children in addition to her job,
when she is eating at home it is likely to be influenced by her children's food
preferences and eating habits. For example, parents tend to eat the food their
children do not eat which will influence her dietary intake. In addition to this, a home
with children is more likely to have readily available sugary and sweet snacks lying
around which will also influence her diet. Since she is busy a lot of the time, eating at
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, home might require more ready meals and food ordered in due to her lack of time to
make food from scratch.
EDUCATION / PUBLIC HEALTH /BEING A NURSE - Since Laura would have had
to go through a health and social care course and be educated on how diet affects
and influences health for her specific job role, Laura’s diet is likely to be influenced
by the knowledge of what she knows about a healthy and unhealthy diet and how
diet affects public health. This means her diet is likely to be influenced by what she
has been educated on to keep her and her family’s diet healthy. Since Laura works
in A&E this is likely to influence her diet by seeing how diet affects the public and
their health first hand, this will influence her diet in a positive way to implement
changes to keep her and her family’s diet healthy.
Her diet is also likely to be influenced by being a nurse and education because this
knowledge might cause her to go for a healthier choice of lunch in the cafeteria or to
bring a healthier lunch in because of her education and seeing what she sees as a
nurse.
NICK
aged 59 who is a vegan and works as a pharmaceutical representative often
away from home travelling for part of the week.
MEAL PATTERNS - This is likely to influence Nick’s diet as (stated above) as his
meal pattern is likely to be very random and probably full of fast food, salty and high
sugar hotel snacks etc. since he is staying in hotels when he is away and needs food
quickly because he is working (even vegan foods can be fatty and lack nutrients if
cooked in a way that removes the goodness or in fatty oils) In addition to this, his
meal pattern might influence his dietary intake by causing him to take up ‘grazing’
since his meal patterns are so random and undefined and since he is likely to be
grazing on vegan foods, this might influence his diet by making him hungrier more
often. In addition to this, since much of the food he eats is vegan, he is likely to
influence his diet by lacking essential nutrients needed from meat, eggs and dairy
products. His diet is also likely to be influenced positively since he is likely to be
eating healthy and quick foods like salads, fruit etc. but again, he might eat more
than another person since he will need more of these light foods to fill him up.
However, his meal patterns are likely to influence his diet by causing malnutrition
from lack of eggs, meat etc.
SNACKING - this is likely to have a positive influence on Nick’s diet Since most of
the snacks he will eat are fruit, health bars and so on. However since his dietary
intake is mostly health foods, he might notice a lack of energy being presented from
this influence of the snacks he decided to eat, since his snacks and meal patterns
both lack meat and protein in his diet.
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