Are you eating what you’re eating because it’s expected of you? A recent study says that social norms a influencing our food choices.
Medical News Today reports that people are eating what they eat at times so that they can solidify a place in a social group. For example, if a person sense of self comes from their identity as a member of a group that eats healthy, that person will eat healthy foods.
This is almost like saying we can be peer pressured into eating healthy if everyone else we hang out with does. This can also mean that we will eat poorly because our friends eat poorly.
According to Bustle, researchers have found that both the quantity and quality of the food someone eats can be affected by the people that they are eating with. If your friend goes back for seconds, you are more likely to go back for seconds and if your friend orders a BigMac, you might just order one too (or something similar).
When choosing your friends, or the ones you eat with anyway, choose wisely. Friends who eat healthy keep their other friends healthy! After all, we want the best for one another, right?