The Social Context of Food course for Dietitians

As healthcare practitioners we often feel we know what infants and young children should be eating, but the families we work with can experience barriers in putting this information into practice. In our day-to-day practice, we need to consider the social aspects of food and the effect that our environment has on our food choices.

This session was reviewed by Amanda Avery and updated in February 2017.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Describe the variability in how families organise eating according to religious, cultural and socio-economic circumstances
• List the external influences on families’ food choices
• Describe the benefits of family mealtimes and parental role modelling

To improve nutritional intakes of families and communities, healthcare practitioners (HCPs) need to help families change their eating habits. To do this, HCPs require an understanding of why and how families make their food choices and engage in particular feeding practices.