Food intake and leisure time activities

Eating Food: A Leisure PursuitFood lovers experience pleasure, enjoyment, relaxation, and reward through nourishment. The human body requires food for performing daily activities. Food is perceived as gratification, social construction, sharing of knowledge, and engagement in various cultures and traditions (Yang & Khoo-Lattimore, 2015). For example, food is portrayed as freedom, necessity, occupation, symbol, power for individuals, leading catalysts for economies, and conglomerates in the different countries (Mair, Sumner, & Rotteau, 2008).

The locals in communities are adapting and enjoying the food as a leisure pursuit. Nevertheless, the marriage of food with leisure is incontestable, new avenues of expensive and innovative dining leisure explored every day (Mair et al. , 2008). Simultaneously, a group of individuals who have a keen interest in gastronomy is establishing business and executing innovations into the food industry and food practices.

This management report aims to provide better understanding and managing of the leisure pursuit of eating food through the fourfold lenses: Motivations to participate in the activity, constraints to take part in the pursuit, adverse impacts on the sustainability, and finally sustainable solutions for managing this leisure pursuit better.

What Motivates the Food Leisure Lovers to Participate in this Activity All generations, including the current generation (i. e. , millennials) are developing in growing economies that are striving towards significant achievements which have led to high-income growth and comfortable lives (Jang, Kim, & Bonn, 2011; Mair, Sumner, & Rotteau, 2008).

Due to the fact they have disposable income, the young generations are learning about the various type of food. Additionally, gastronomy enthusiasts desire for knowledge of new food, reasonably priced menus, new tastes, size, quantity, and concessions on food dishes in food establishments that keep the appetite firing for the food leisure consumers (Jung et al. , 2015).

Due to more technological innovations, food lovers have more access to more knowledge about food. These trends lead to building a status symbol, motivations, identity, and healthy food consumption had resulted in a reduction of body weight, feeling better which motivates low-calorie diet, flourished lifestyle (Anderson et al. , 2007; Kim et al. , 2013; Tudoran et al. , 2012). Jones (2009) stated leisure dining consumers have inclined towards healthy eating options especially when away from home (as cited in Kang, Jun, & Arendt, 2015, p. 1).

As a result of this, healthier restaurants are opening with healthier choices. Further boosting the green initiative revolution towards organic food growth leads to adopting healthy lifestyles (Mair, Sumner, & Rotteau, 2008). This is relevant because food lovers consume the food without thinking about impacts of leisure dining towards sustainability. Above all motivations, food enthusiasts always have some restrictions to pursue their activity.

Constraints for Food Lovers towards the Activity There are various constraints connected to leisure dining. Price is one attribute which dominates decision-making for buying food products (Ozdemir & Caliskan, 2014). For example buying food at fast food restaurants is cheaper than organic food at the grocery store and making it. Hence, consistent marketing of low prices at food establishments and their drive away booths have enticed consumers (Ozdemir & Caliskan, 2014).

Therefore, an enormous paradigm shift in leisure consumer behavior such as the attitude of comparing food products in two alternative products of the same type can be identified (Jung, Sydnor, Lee, & Almanza. , 2015). As clarified by Jung et al. ,(2015), with the help of a multi-attribute decision-making model that food consumers make choices and strategies based on previous experiences, for instance, mental and physical attributes of product association, value, food security, and the time period, consequently creates a confusion and ends with disappointment.

Therefore, by focusing on the price, restaurants shift the pattern from quality to quantity making consumers unhealthy. Furthermore, food cravings, overindulging behavior, and emotions entice a person to eat more unhealthy food outside which also leads to health issues like fatness, high blood pressure and increased sugar levels (Dressler & Smith, 2013). This habit has become an epidemic in many countries. As a result, this causes incremental growth in high-calorie consumption (American Cancer Society, 2014).

Not only the well-being of food enthusiasts has taken a setback but also lesiure dinning creates undesirable effects on the ecosystem and its sustainability, which will be further discussed in the next section. Negative Impacts Created Through Leisure Dining to Sustainability There are various negative impacts with regards to food leisure dinning; Cost, food waste, carbon footprint, undernourishment. Where leisure pursuit of eating food for enhancement of experience, enjoyment, happiness, and social value has created a viewpoint of nonstop dining out (American Cancer Society, 2014).

Not only is this unhealthy behavior, but also it is an expensive pursuit. Moreover, it has created an adverse impact on the environment such as food wastage, and food loss is happening due to high consumer demand in food supply procurement, wholesale markets, from ranch to restaurants which increase carbon footprint at various steps of processing, manufacturing, and cooking (Vittuari, Menna, & Pagani, 2016). For example, restaurants around the world are throwing huge amounts of food away.

Therefore, these reasons can create imbalances in the society through food insecurity, accessibilities barriers for low-income individuals, undernourishment due to change in dietary habits, and excess demand due to human growth population (Vittuari, Menna, & Pagani, 2016). Irrespectively, increasing population in people and other issues have created an opportunity for the food industry and production companies to increase more food manufacturing on a larger scale.

Thus, food is produced expansively as a resource and is available all over, but we do not care and respect it, and hence to balance the diet system, the firm decision and revising policies need to implemented towards nutriment issues and food system process (Mair, Sumner, & Rotteau, 2008). Hence people who have the freedom to buy and eat food with a healthy lifestyle has different perspectives towards diet compared to food leisure consumers who have limited scope. On a certain level, consuming food can change a personal belief (Yang & Khoo-Lattimore, 2015).

Regardless of the negative impacts happening in the ecosystem, they can be mitigated through managing innovative solutions better. Innovative Solution To Manage Food Leisure Pursuit Sustainably Food establishment and production industry is a diverse sector which is on an expansion route due to huge consumer demand in the market, where remarkable research and development is still in progress, although there is a lack of green sustainability and food processing innovation (Mair, Sumner, & Rotteau, 2008; Wang, Chen, Lee, & Tsai, 2013).

Which has enforced various food serving establishments and its affiliates to rework the organizational sustianbity structure through creative means by largely focusing on ecosystem parameters? As well recent research study explains that if sustainable initiatives are implemented, more the food industry will flourish and huge positive impacts will be seen on consumer satisfaction (Chou, Horng, Liu, Huang, & Chung, 2016; Wang, Chen, Lee, & Tsai, 2013). Therefore a need of sensibility towards the environment, socio-economic, financial attributes has to be taken into consideration, which creates a positive impact on the communities.

Accordingly, food business communities and its stakeholders should work on one interconnected platform of educating and awareness of food sustainabilities to a wide group of leisure food lovers and general consumers. As a result, that implementation of the green initiative food policy and the investment in food research development and technology will help to reduce energy consumption, creating new decent food guidelines, promoting local food produced by farmers, zero carbon emission, less food waste, and maximum utilization of food and energy (Chou at al. , 2016).

That will delight the leisure food consumers to mitigate their environmental impacts without curtailing their choices. In conclusion, leisure dining needs to be sustainable. To achieve this pursuit, we need to understand motivations, constraints, adverse impacts to sustainability, and innovative solution to manage the leisure pursuit better. To make leisure dining sustainable, we need to rework our existing systems through future green initiative policies, reducing carbon footprint, and educating consumers. Overall, sustainable dining will balance the ecosystem and the leisure dining industry.

References

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