Explaining seasonal patterns of food consumption

When questioned, people typically report that different foods are appropriate at different times of the year. That is, patterns of food consumption exhibit seasonal variations. Changes in food odour hedonics and familiarity ratings have also been reported over the course of the year, especially in t...

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Main Author: Spence, C
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2021
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author Spence, C
author_facet Spence, C
author_sort Spence, C
collection OXFORD
description When questioned, people typically report that different foods are appropriate at different times of the year. That is, patterns of food consumption exhibit seasonal variations. Changes in food odour hedonics and familiarity ratings have also been reported over the course of the year, especially in those countries with marked seasonal changes in climate. The question addressed in this review is what factors help to explain these seasonal differences in food consumption. While our nutritional needs undoubtedly do differ somewhat over the course of the year, environmental (e.g., think only of changes in ambient temperature and/or humidity), physiological/perceptual (i.e., threshold changes), and psychological factors (e.g., wanting to make a healthy start in the New Year) also play a role. Taken together, though, it would appear that cultural/ritual factors, as well as the influence of increasingly-sophisticated data-driven marketing may be more important than nutritional, environmental, or physiological factors in helping to explain why it is that so many of us choose to eat different foods at different times of the year, despite the increasing availability of many foods on a year-round basis in the increasingly globalized food marketplace in many developed countries.
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spelling oxford-uuid:8954401b-3ef9-440b-b4c0-2fc375ad4e482022-03-26T22:23:52ZExplaining seasonal patterns of food consumptionJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:8954401b-3ef9-440b-b4c0-2fc375ad4e48EnglishSymplectic ElementsElsevier2021Spence, CWhen questioned, people typically report that different foods are appropriate at different times of the year. That is, patterns of food consumption exhibit seasonal variations. Changes in food odour hedonics and familiarity ratings have also been reported over the course of the year, especially in those countries with marked seasonal changes in climate. The question addressed in this review is what factors help to explain these seasonal differences in food consumption. While our nutritional needs undoubtedly do differ somewhat over the course of the year, environmental (e.g., think only of changes in ambient temperature and/or humidity), physiological/perceptual (i.e., threshold changes), and psychological factors (e.g., wanting to make a healthy start in the New Year) also play a role. Taken together, though, it would appear that cultural/ritual factors, as well as the influence of increasingly-sophisticated data-driven marketing may be more important than nutritional, environmental, or physiological factors in helping to explain why it is that so many of us choose to eat different foods at different times of the year, despite the increasing availability of many foods on a year-round basis in the increasingly globalized food marketplace in many developed countries.
spellingShingle Spence, C
Explaining seasonal patterns of food consumption
title Explaining seasonal patterns of food consumption
title_full Explaining seasonal patterns of food consumption
title_fullStr Explaining seasonal patterns of food consumption
title_full_unstemmed Explaining seasonal patterns of food consumption
title_short Explaining seasonal patterns of food consumption
title_sort explaining seasonal patterns of food consumption
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