I’ll eat what she’s eating- can the university student experience influence eating behaviours?

Abstract

If I asked you to draw your food habits over your lifetime as a pathway what would it look like? Would it be a straight line, or perhaps have more of a meandering appearance? This research looks at food habits like a pathway through life, or the Food Life Course, concentrating on how food habits are formed and how subsequently these habits are refashioned due to a change in circumstances. We develop patterns of behaviour around food in childhood largely as a result of familial influences and these behaviours evolve as an individual moves through different life stages. However, the impact of life events on an individual’s food choices can vary depending on social and personal influences and the eating environment itself. So, for example, what would happen if I took an individual out of the routine of their family environment and thrust them into a totally new environment with ...