Food Journal, part II
Analysis of your journal
Looking over your food journal, try to identify patterns in your personal consumption and find explanations for your behavior. For example, do your food habits change on the weekends?
Do you eat alone or with others? How many times a week to you skip a meal? Do you think what you eat is representative of your current age or have you always eaten this way?
Are there any circumstances that affect your eating habits, such as money, illness or guests? Why do you eat what you eat, and what relationship do you find between your personal values and your food consumption?
Do you eat organic, fair trade, local? What is the ratio between highly processed and unprocessed foods that you consume?
As you are looking over your journal, respond to the following questions:
1. What was the biggest influence on what you ate?
2. Which, if any, of your food choices were influenced by emotions? How many times did you eat because you were truly hungry?
3. How was social/family pressure a factor in your food decisions?
4. Which, if any, of your food choices were influenced by marketing strategies or food advertisements?
5. How often did you think of health and nutrition when making food choices? What were some of your healthiest choices? What were some of the least healthy?
6. How do you think your food buying and consumption patterns help define who you are? For example, if Mary found she ate granola with organic milk and fruit most mornings. What does this say about her environmental attitudes, her food budget, her family history or her sense of independence (i.e., eating differently than her parents)?
7. What is the ratio between highly processed and unprocessed foods that you consume?
Your response should be about a page, typed, single-spaced, 12pt font.