Psychobiological determinants of food behavior: an emphasis on environmental factors contributing to obesity

Abstract

The food behavior is multidetermined and only a psychobiological analysis can comprise the relations among physiological, genetic and psychological factors, as wall as, the environmental conditions. Thus, the capability to control the food ingestion request specialized mechanisms to harmonize physiological information of internal environment with nutritional information of external environment. Regarding the external factors deserves importance the question related to food advertising and the midia influence in the determination of the people diet in developed and developing nations. Thus, the aim of the present work is to review the environmental factors that determine the human food behavior, with special emphasis on that factors that can predispose to obesity.