Professional blog

Food Behavior Challenge Portfolio

Undertaking food challenges helps change and implement increased steady convictions that shape up people’s dietary plans. These include keeping a record of differences in food consumption and listing them on a worksheet that helps execute the food challenge tasks every day. Food is one of the most essential components that support the body in life, and these foods come from an environment that has its system. Food systems begin from growing on the farm and people harvest it when it’s ready for consumption. People may consume it unprocessed while others take farm produce to food industries for processing and packaging. Transportation to the supermarkets for easy access is done and then people obtain it for cooking and disposal as related to the purpose. Production and consumption of food have impacts on the environment through disposal methods for the waste, therefore, these calls for the development of a healthy and sustainable food system and food waste strategy.

The daily food consumption source is the kitchen where the food is prepared, the meals consist of breakfast that contains carbohydrates like noodles. According to Ridoutt et al. (5), the southwest Asian culture has a background of their main source of food being grains for lunch and supper which are most likely to be rice. The main components of lunch and supper are vegetables and meat in the main dish. Consumption of vegetables every day may be expensive and not convenient for storage as thought by many though methods like refrigeration are better for preserving them. I consume more vegetables than meat daily to gain a healthy lifestyle routine for a sustainable food system. I find animal food very unfriendly to the environment due to the heavy waste they produce such as production emissions from the greenhouses. Livestock production causes around 18% of greenhouse emissions in the world (2) and these leads to climate changes, therefore consumption of vegetables and reduction of meat consumption is a better method that leads to an improved food system and healthy behavior.

Food packaging is a threat to the environment (7) and it should be considered as an act that needs waste food disposal policies to improve the effects of pollution and environmental degradation. The meat industry has been contributing a large number of climate changes and therefore, reduction of consumption for such foods is advisable for a significant pro-environmental behavior. Pollution increases continuous risks (7) leading to an increase in demand for food, this causes serious environmental damage and it’s now time for the planet to change and practice better food systems that relieve the environment from degradation through a reduction in consumption of packaged foods such as meat. Land and water are two factors that are interconnected to the environment and therefore food waste disposal systems that reduce negative effects on the environment are encouraged through increased consumption of vegetables and reduction in processed food such as meat and livestock products.

Behavior change implementations are very important in somewhat more effective measures of promoting healthy diet consumption than a reduction in unhealthy eating habits. Education levels and general knowledge are vital elements that help develop models that best suits the implementation procedure for a healthy food system (6). A better food system for the future will be a better way of understanding the merits and disadvantages of meat consumption and packed food meals. The influence on how healthy behaviors are implemented by influences from family and people around for example, when surrounded by individuals who consume more vegetables, there is a likelihood of implementing better healthy behaviors for the future, unlike when surrounded by heavily packed food consumers. Setting up a determination model for absorbing more farm-based food and less animal product food is deemed necessary to achieve a positively changed healthy system with better healthy behavior thus reducing the negative impacts on the environment in waste food disposal.

The national food waste management strategy implementations aim at halving waste food in the near future (5). These strategies are composed of different efforts for example in Australia, there is AgriFutures Australia, the grocery council, the Deakin university strategy, and the CRISO Australian food that is contributing to implementing the waste food management for a better environment in the future. The implementation strategy is supported by over 1.37 million investments in Australia (5). The steps followed in implementing these are; independent organizations setting and developing a program framework for priorities and actions, voluntary commitments program that engages industries and food packers to handle waste food. And finally, the national food waste management monitors food waste reduction goals. Development of new market and new food products helps in the creation of employment for the youth, spending less on household food bills reduce waste and disposal fees and these finally help reduce the impact of greenhouse gas emissions to the environment as healthy food eating behaviors change for a better health system not only for an individual but for the whole.

According to the study by the National health and medical research council(NHMRC) in Australia (1), eating ultra-processed and junk foods increases health risks such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. Junk foods are high in energy, high sugars, high salt, high fat, and low in a nutrient, according to Australian dietary guidelines. This outlining the perfect food choice for Australian people from their culture. Processed foods do not include in the farm-made groups of food, because they did not reach the nutrition requirement for people, but it gives enjoyment when eating them. It is unnecessary to purchase discretionary food and no need for our body’s nutrient intake. However, the situation of people taking more junk food in Australia was getting serious. About one-third of Australians’ energy was from discretionary foods. This was the highest for teenagers aged 14–18, at 41% (2). Children are the future of the country, the highest range falls into the teenagers’ group was showing how important we need to stop consuming junk food. Levels of physical activity across the population groups were generally low, and the prevalence of overweight and obesity was high, reaching 81% for males aged 51–70 (1) and (2). Successfully adopting and implementation of the healthy food system has changed the eating behavior for the young and the situation was beneficial.

In conclusion, people can change their food behaviors to healthier habits by setting up goals and work hard towards achieving them in a determined procedure. Maintaining a good health system and healthy eating habits is important where absorption of higher plant-based foods are key daily routines and reduction in meat-based food that aims at upgrading the environmental safety from pollution and degradation. Healthy eating behavior is not only helpful to an individual’s lifestyle and health but also serves as a disease control measure for long-lasting environmental health that is free from greenhouse gas emissions and the use of less energy in food processing and packing. Finally, lack of knowledge concerning food systems and waste food disposal can lead to higher health risks and worsened environmental safety thus call for an opportunity for people to associate with national food waste implementation strategies to build a good future food chain system that contributes to better health lives.

Food behavior 1

Food behavior 2

Reflections

After the food challenge days, the results for the food behavior challenges can be reflected in what I experienced from the challenge practices. First, the challenge was very successful with lots of insightful advantages to human health and daily routines. From the vegetable consumption behavior, I started by eating more farm produce that gave me the morale to prepare salads every day. Afterward, the salad preparation became a routine activity that kept me on the right track with my diet adjustments. The taste of the drinks was not good but after all, I did not give up the challenge rather some vegetable drinks could not work due to tastes, I tried my level best to take the vegetable and fruit juice through a mindset that told me vegetables are good for my health and at the same time I was also researching to conclude on the benefits of vegetable consumption. Several human aspects in eating behavior can be useful in the identification of effective disease preventions (1) such as obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome whose natural causes are strong influences of nutritional components. There was a significant change in my lifestyle that impacted how I used to take green drinks during the start. Subsequently, there was a barrier that kept stopping my daily priorities through getting busy with non-food-related activities that could hinder my successful completion of the challenge but I minimized such activities and postponed them for later dates and these successfully worked for the challenge.

Although food consumption behavior entirely lies under the control of an individual, families should consider an annual eating program that is programmed seasonally due to climate changes. For example, a dietary control plan should be observed during various seasons within the year (2). These should follow an implementation tool that promotes the inclusion of a healthy food system in every family’s diet effective implementation of healthy eating habits can largely promote a reduction in chronic and non-chronic diseases.  Health and dietary education should be provided free of charge to families and individuals in public institutions. Introduction of eating and dietary lessons would be of great advantage to many individuals who choose to consume certain foods without the knowledge of the future impacts on their body. Vilar-Compte et al (2) assert that education is vital for better behavior change especially for young people, understanding the merits and the demerits of animal meat consumption can gradually educate people on how to achieve a good diet implementation plan for future health benefits.  Health diet and food system policies can help individuals change behaviors of consumption of meat-related products that are leakages to diseases. polices work effectively where there is the availability of adequate food resources, for example, you cannot provide free dietary education to individuals who do not have an adequate food supply in their households.

Therefore, governments and non-governmental agencies can provide food avenues for low-income households to boost their efforts in food system behaviors that are highly blocked by high food costs. Achieving a good food system that changes the consumption behavior of individuals relies on food knowledge and waste recycling information (2), therefore, policies that ensure opportunities for growing population get access to such information should be implemented in association with the national food waste and recycling strategies that aim at building a better future food chain system that contributes to a better healthy environment for all people.