Written Assignment Unit 2
Unhealthy eating
Withheld for peer assessment
Bachelor of Science in health science, UoPeople
PSYC 1111 Introduction to Health Psychology - AY2021-T4
Diedon Dorambari (Instructor)
19th April 2021
WRITING ASSIGNMENT UNIT 2 1
Written Assignment Unit 2
Unhealthy eating
Introduction
According to Doll and Peto (1981), “diet has a 35% rate of death by cancer, more than
tobacco and alcohol”. As a health concerned person, healthy eating is one of my major priorities.
My goal is to teach my kids to eat all types of food so they don’t “show neophobic responses to a
new food,” (Ogden, 2017, The Psychology of Health and Illness: An Open Access Course, p.
25). Up to now, I believe I have been doing an outstanding job with that, because my kids eat
almost all the veggies we serve them, with the exception of some raw strong-flavored vegetables
such as onion, garlic, and ginger.
Another very important reason I’m concern with my kids’ eating, is to discover which
foods they are allergic to. Fortunately, they haven’t shown any allergic reaction to milk, eggs,
nuts, soy (MSG), gluten, fish, and shellfish, which to my personal experience, are the major
contributors to food allergy. Having a happy and healthy family living is my main objective.
Sadly, I have seen many people having inappropriate eating behavior. Their eating belief has
turned them to have a negative attitude toward healthy eating.
Unhealthy eating
The main excuse people tend to use for unhealthy eating is, “I don’t have enough money
to buy healthy organic food”. Their belief in healthy eating is an economical position. Many
people put work before health. They tend to eat junk food rather than a healthy balanced meal to
have extra hours at work.
WRITING ASSIGNMENT UNIT 2 2
Many of them are conscious of the effect of unhealthy eating. Because of their belief in
unhealthy food, many of them end up with anemia, obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, or
cancer, as mention in Doll and Peto (1981). These negative beliefs are causing a negative
reaction to their health.
Many of them tend to say, “I think I’m getting gastritis because I never have time to sit
and have a healthy meal, but my income is low, so when the job calls, I need to be ready to
respond, or else I would be able to satisfy my family needs”. They know they are getting ill
because of their unhealthy eating; still, they don’t make any effort to change that habit.
Changing their negative belief and unhealthy eating will improve their health. People
should think that if they are the main providers to their families, they should try to be as healthy
as possible. It wouldn’t make any sense that they scarify their health to provide luxury to their
family if in the end they get a chronic disease with fatal consequences and left their family
helpless.
Educating there selves as a family in healthy eating would make a big change. Learning
how to prepare quick healthy meals and making a meal plan depending on their schedule is
important. The main idea is to be healthy, without neglecting the family needs.
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There is a famous proverb that says, “Wanting is power”. If you set your priorities and
goal, you will defiantly succeed in whatever you plan to do. Defiantly, your health will improve
and will have more time to spend with your family.
Having a negative belief in healthy eating is the worst thing we can do. If we set our
goals and priorities, we will be having a long life to live. Thinking that only wealthy people can
eat healthy food is a bad belief. We need to be concern about our health. We need to know that
after this life, there is no more.
Conclusion
The “The Health Belief Model” (HBM) Rosenstock (1966) was a very interesting
section. There I learned that “Over recent years, the Health Belief Model has been used to predict
a wide variety of health-related behaviors," (Ogden, 2017, The Psychology of Health and Illness:
An Open Access Course, pp. 18-20). The comparison I made between "HBM" and my
community's healthy eating belief was very interesting.
After this study, I will do a self-cross examination and improve my healthy eating belief.
I got a lot to learn, but I’m confident that I will succeed and improve my family and my health
belief.
WRITING ASSIGNMENT UNIT 2 4
Reference
Ogden, J. The Psychology of Health and Illness: An Open Access Course. UoPeople
https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1189087/mod_book/chapter/279222/Ogden%20-%20The
%20psychology%20of%20health%20and%20illness_2019.pdf
