Factors Influencing Eating Habits and Key Nutrition Concepts

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering factors influencing eating habits, key nutrition concepts, dietary supplements, and nutrition terminology.

Biological and Physiological Factors

Factors that influence food choice based on an individual's life stages or age and sensory information, including the taste, texture, odor, and appearance of food.

Cognitive and Psychological Factors

Influences on food choice driven by learning processes (experienced at home, in the classroom, or online) and emotional state or mood, which shares a bidirectional relationship with food.

Environmental Factors

External elements that affect eating habits and purchasing decisions, such as food cost, location to a grocery store, food availability, and marketing techniques like store layout, advertisements, and packaging.

Registered Nutritionist

An expert who can help individuals select foods that align with their budget, support health goals, are accessible, taste good, and are nutritionally sound.

Nutrient-Dense Foods

Foods that supply more key beneficial nutrients in relation to calories, containing little or no solid fats, added sugars, refined starches, and sodium (examples include meat, nuts, and fruits).

Energy Density

The amount of energy a food provides per given weight of food, with fat supplying the most energy per gram (for example, a donut is more energy-dense than strawberries).

Empty Calories

High sources of unhealthy solid fats and added sugar that offer high calories with little nutrients (examples include soda, candy bars, and candy).

Dietary Supplements

Products (such as protein powder, Omega-3, protein bars, green tea, and probiotics) classified as food under the DSHEA that are used to supplement the diet and are not tested as rigorously by the FDA as medications.

Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994

The legal framework (DSHEA) that classifies nutrient supplements and herbal products like echinacea as food rather than pharmaceutical drugs or standard food.

Physiological Dose

An amount of a nutrient that is within the range of safe intake and enables the body to function optimally.

Megadose

An amount of a nutrient or vitamin that greatly exceeds the recommended amount, which can cause vitamins to behave like drugs and produce unpleasant effects or health risks.

Functional Foods

Foods introduced into the diet to boost nutrient intakes or help manage specific health conditions.

Malnutrition

Improper nourishment, which encompasses both overnutrition and undernutrition.

Medical Nutrition Therapies

Special diets prescribed for individuals with chronic health conditions to manage health factors and specific nutritional needs.

Dynamic Science of Nutrition

The concept that nutrition is not an exact science and is continuously subject to change as new research develops.