When Is Food Consumption Maladaptive?

People make about 200 decisions a day about what food to consume and when to consume it. Given the sheer number of food-related decisions people face in their lifetime, it is understandable that even those best equipped with resources—whether cognitive, financial, or emotional—to make good food choices may nonetheless find themselves making maladaptive decisions about what to eat. In this chapter, we address two main issues in the marketing literature related to food consumption. First, we challenge a paternalistic view of maladaptive food consumption. Second, we discuss the limitations of traditional consumer behavior methodologies around food choice measurement that may limit marketing scholars’ ability to derive insights and make recommendations for a population that is, ultimately, heterogeneous and diverse. We then consider what a more holistic approach to food consumption research might look like, including explorations of intersectionality between race and culture before closing with questions that we hope will inspire future thinking and research for academics, marketing practitioners, and policy-makers.