ABSTRACT
Background: Eating patterns differ vastly among young adult females due to their body image concern and this consequently affects their BMI status. In most cases the subjects choose to skip meals, change their eating pattern, switch on to exercise so as to lose weight to gain appreciable body image. But it is also seen that in the way to have perfect body image, these subjects tend to have unhealthy food habits that affect their BMI, i.e., either they become underweight or overweight, and it results in malnourishment. The present paper reviews association of eating patterns and body image perception among young adult females and the effect of this association on their BMI. Methodology: In depth literature review was carried out using available search engines such as PubMed, Cochrane Library, Science Direct etc, for published original articles, government reports with specific reference to young adult females were collected. Results: A total of 10 original articles and 3 systematic review articles were included regarding this paper. All the 10 original articles had study subjects belonging to urban background and majority included medical students. A high prevalence of malnourishment was seen among subjects and majority of them were dissatisfied with their body image. Conclusion: This review article focused on the young adult female groups which may be useful for future studies because the body image perception and changing eating patterns are the major issues in the young adult females. Through this review article, various aspects have been revealed that would lead to significant step towards the improvement in the eating patterns of young adult females.
ABSTRACT
Food taboos are commonly found among around all societies of the world. In every society, culture and beliefs influence the women eating patterns during pregnancy. In Indian society, most food practices and beliefs have emerged from deeply rooted traditions and customs of particular geographical area or culture. Objectives: The objectives of the present study were- 1. To study the prevalence of food taboos and social beliefs among pregnant women. 2. To find out the avoided certain food and reason behind it during the pregnancy. 3. To study the association between the demographic characteristic of pregnant women and food taboos. Methods & Materials: Participants of the study were pregnant 105 women aged 18 to 35 years of Harahua Primary Health Centre, in Varanasi District. The cross-sectional study design was used to obtain the objective of the study. The finding of the study revealed that most of the pregnant women (70.47%) use to avoid some foods during pregnancy. Papaya was the most common food, which was avoided by the pregnant women, and reasons for not consuming the papaya, is it cause were abortion and it is a hot food. The findings of the present study also revealed no association between food taboos and pregnant women demographic characteristics such as age, category, type of family, educational status, socio-economic status, number of pregnancy etc. It means in every type of family, educated women, as well as of high socio-economic backgrounds women use to belief on food taboos.