Food play can have sexual or non-sexual connotations. It often refers to "sitophilia", a form of sexual fetishism in which participants are aroused by erotic situations involving food. The phrase is also used to refer to non-sexual play with food, such as playful and decorative food displays, enjoyment of preparing food, or even a play about food. This article refers to the sitophilia connotation of food play.

Some foods and herbs themselves are purported to cause sexual arousal in and of themselves. Food play overlaps with other fetishes, including wet and messy fetishism, feederism, and nyotaimori. It is differentiated from vorarephilia, a.k.a. "vore", in that food play fetishizes food while vore fetishizes the act of eating a living creature, or being eaten alive.

Certain fruits (e.g., bananas), vegetables (e.g., cucumbers and zucchinis) and processed meat (e.g., sausages and hot dogs), if used safely, may be fetish objects because they have a phallic shape, and can be substitutes for dildos, useful for vaginal or anal penetration. Other foods are so constituted that they can be sexually penetrated by a penis, if an appropriate hole is drilled in them, such as the namesake of "American Pie".

Francesco Morackini, an Austrian designer and artist, designed and created a home Dildo Maker. It allows phallic food to be sculpted into an even more phallic shape for easier insertion.

Studies have shown that heavy drinkers put themselves at greater risk for heart disease and developing potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmias. Excessive alcohol consumption can cause higher blood pressure, increase cholesterol levels and weakened heart muscles. Studies have shown that moderate wine drinking can improve the balance of low-density lipoprotein (LDL or "bad" cholesterol) to high-density lipoprotein (HDL "good" cholesterol), which has been theorized as to clean up or remove LDL from blocking arteries. The main cause of heart attacks and the pain of angina is the lack of oxygen caused by blood clots and atheromatous plaque build up in the arteries. The alcohol in wine has anticoagulant properties that limits blood clotting by making the platelets in the blood less prone to stick together and reducing the levels of fibrin protein that binds them together.

Professional cardiology associations recommend that people who are currently nondrinkers should not start drinking alcohol.

Research has shown that moderate levels of alcohol consumed with meals does not have a substantial impact on blood sugar levels. A 2005 study presented to the American Diabetes Association suggest that moderate consumption may lower the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

Several studies have shown that obese men tend to have a lower sperm count, fewer rapidly mobile sperm and fewer progressively motile sperm compared to normal-weight men.

Obesity in Germany has created a cholesterol problem. High cholesterol is known to cause premature death, angina, heart disease and strokes.

There has been an increase of children with Type 1 diabetes between 1996 and 2011. Diabetics are at higher risk for complications such as heart attack and stroke. In Germany, 600,000 people suffered from diabetes near the end of World War II compared to eight million now.

Obesity can increased risk for secondary diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and Alzheimer's. Children who get diabetes can expect to lose 10 to 15 years off of their lives. Diabetes also affect the eyes, kidneys and nerves in the legs.

Obesity is a "very strong promoter of cancer." Obesity causes an increased risk for colon cancer and breast cancer.

Genes partly play a role in obesity. Scientists at the German Institute of Human Nutrition and the University Hospital of Leipzig stated that identified two genes that promote fat accumulation in the abdominal cavity. The increased activity of the genes also promotes the release of an enzyme that is responsible for the formation of cortisol. A permanent increase in cortisol levels contribute to obesity.

The causes of childhood obesity can be based on both a combination of individual choices and socio-environmental adaptions with genetic factors playing an important role also.

Genetics, according to the Australian Health Survey plays a primary role in determining obesity. In 2011/2012 it was recorded that 90% of the Australian population had inherited their obese tendencies due to the epigenetic modifications of their mothers during pregnancy. Interchanging closely with the genetic factor, the environment and individual temptations are also highlighted as contributing causes to the worldwide epidemic. The genetic configuration influences the tendencies to become overweight, and diet and physical activity determines to what extent those tendencies are elaborated.

Genetics seem to play a role in both food neophobia and general neophobia. Research shows that about two-thirds of the variation in food neophobia is due to genetics. A study done on twin pairs showed an even higher correlation, indicating that genetics does play a factor in food neophobia.

Psychosocial factors can also increase a child's chances of developing food neophobia. Young children carefully watch parental food preferences, and this may produce neophobic tendencies with regard to eating if parents tend to avoid some foods.

Another cause includes being more sensitive than average to bitter tastes, which may be associated with a significant history of middle ear infection or an increased perception of bitter foods, known as a supertaster.

Sometimes food neophobia is more directly caused by an environmental occurrence. For example, with poison-induced neophobia, a food-poisoning experience can lead to people not only avoiding the flavor(s) they associate with creating their illness but also avoiding all novel flavors during the period directly following the poisoning experience. This can be seen as the body’s attempt to prevent any new and risky food items from entering the body.

Besides food poisoning, food neophobia also arises from the person associating a negative experience with new foods, for example suffering from gastroenteritis or other gastrointestinal illnesses after eating undercooked food.

Another environmental factor influencing levels of food neophobia is the current arousal level of the individual. Trying a new food is an arousing experience, and if the person prefers to maintain a lower arousal level in general, then he or she might avoid new foods as a method of managing his or her current arousal level. Also, if people are currently experiencing situations with a lot of novelty and are therefore more aroused, they might be reluctant to try new foods as doing so would increase their arousal level to an uncomfortable level. This example can help explain why Americans visiting a foreign country might be less likely to try a new food item and instead gravitate towards the familiar McDonald’s food.

According to Cleveland Clinic, cultural, social, and environmental factors, among others, all affect eating behaviors.

Obesity is a chronic health problem. It is one of the biggest factors for a type II diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It is also associated with cancer (e.g. colorectal cancer), osteoarthritis, liver disease, sleep apnea, depression and other medical conditions that affect mortality and morbidity.

According to the NHANES data, African American and Mexican American adolescents between 12 and 19 years old are more likely to be overweight than non-Hispanic White adolescents. The prevalence is 21%, 23% and 14% respectively. Also, in a national survey of American Indian children 5–18 years old, 39 percent were found to be overweight or at risk for being overweight. As per national survey data, these trends indicate that by 2030, 86.3% of adults will be overweight or obese and 51.1% obese.

A 2007 study found that receiving Food Stamps long term (24 months) was associated with a 50% increased obesity rate among female adults.

Looking at the long-term consequences, overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults, which increases to 80 percent if one or more parent is overweight or obese. In 2000, the total cost of obesity for children and adults in the United States was estimated to be US$117 billion (US$61 billion in direct medical costs). Given existing trends, this amount is projected to range from US$860.7-956.9 billion in healthcare costs by 2030.

Food consumption has increased with time. For example, annual per capita consumption of cheese was in 1909; in 2000; the average person consumed of carbohydrates daily in 1970; in 2000; of fats and oils in 1909; in 2000. In 1977, 18% of an average person's food was consumed outside the home; in 1996, this had risen to 32%.

Obesity in China is a major health concern according to the WHO, with overall rates of obesity below 5% in the country, but greater than 20% in some cities. This is a dramatic change from times when China experienced famine as a result from ineffective agriculturalization plans such as the Great Leap Forward.

Currently, obesity in China is mostly confined to the cities where fast food culture and globalization have taken over, in comparison to poorer rural areas. Despite this concentration of obesity, the sheer size of China's population means that over one fifth of all one billion obese people in the world come from China.

The cause of sleepwalking is not known. A number of, as yet unproven, hypotheses are suggested for why it might occur. These include a delay in the maturity of the central nervous system, increased slow wave sleep, sleep deprivation, fever, and excessive tiredness.

There may be a genetic component to sleepwalking. One study found that sleepwalking occurred in 45% of children who have one parent who sleepwalked, and in 60% of children if both parents sleepwalked. Thus, heritable factors may predispose an individual to sleepwalking, but expression of the behavior may also be influenced by environmental factors. Genetic studies using common fruit flies as experimental models reveal a link between night sleep and brain development mediated by evolutionary conserved transcription factors such as AP-2

Sleepwalking may be inherited as an autosomal dominant disorder with reduced penetrance. Genome-wide multipoint parametric linkage analysis for sleepwalking revealed a maximum logarithm of the odds score of 3.14 at chromosome 20q12-q13.12 between 55.6 and 61.4 cM.

Medications, primarily in four classes—benzodiazepine receptor agonists and other GABA modulators, antidepressants and other serotonergic agents, antipsychotics, and β-blockers— have been associated with sleepwalking. The best evidence of medications causing sleepwalking is for Zolpidem and sodium oxybate—all other reports are based on associations noted in case reports.

A number of conditions, such as Parkinson's Disease, are thought to trigger sleepwalking in people without a previous history of sleepwalking.

Some efforts to address this situation, such as pressuring the child to eat a disliked food or threatening punishment for not eating it, tend to exacerbate the problem.

Effective solutions include offering non-food rewards, such as a small sticker, for tasting a new or disliked food, and for parents to model the behavior they want to see by cheerfully eating the new or disliked foods in front of the children.

Exposing someone to a new food increases the chances of liking that food item. However, it is not enough to merely look at a new food. Novel food must be repeatedly tasted in order to increase preference for eating it. It can take as many as 15 tries of a novel food item before a child accepts it. There also appears to be a critical period for lowering later food neophobia in children during the weaning process. The variety of solid foods first exposed to children can lower later food refusal. Some researchers believe that even the food variety of a nursing mother and the consequent variety of flavors in her breastmilk can lead to greater acceptance of novel food items later on in life. Food neophobia does tend to naturally decrease as people age.

Various developmental factors may affect rates of obesity. Breast-feeding for example may protect against obesity in later life with the duration of breast-feeding inversely associated with the risk of being overweight later on. A child's body growth pattern may influence the tendency to gain weight. Researchers measured the standard deviation (SD [weight and length]) scores in a cohort study of 848 babies. They found that infants who had an SD score above 0.67 had catch up growth (they were less likely to be overweight) compared to infants who had less than a 0.67 SD score (they were more likely to gain weight).

A child's weight may be influenced when he/she is only an infant. Researchers also did a cohort study on 19,397 babies, from their birth until age seven and discovered that fat babies at four months were 1.38 times more likely to be overweight at seven years old compared to normal weight babies. Fat babies at the age of one were 1.17 times more likely to be overweight at age seven compared to normal weight babies.

Children's food choices are also influenced by family meals. Researchers provided a household eating questionnaire to 18,177 children, ranging in ages 11–21, and discovered that four out of five parents let their children make their own food decisions. They also discovered that compared to adolescents who ate three or fewer meals per week, those who ate four to five family meals per week were 19% less likely to report poor consumption of vegetables, 22% less likely to report poor consumption of fruits, and 19% less likely to report poor consumption of dairy foods. Adolescents who ate six to seven family meals per week, compared to those who ate three or fewer family meals per week, were 38% less likely to report poor consumption of vegetables, 31% less likely to report poor consumption of fruits, and 27% less likely to report poor consumption of dairy foods. The results of a survey in the UK published in 2010 imply that children raised by their grandparents are more likely to be obese as adults than those raised by their parents. An American study released in 2011 found the more mothers work the more children are more likely to be overweight or obese.

There is not one single cause of anorexia athletica, but many factors that are involved in the disorder. Research has shown that an area on chromosome 1 is linked to anorexia nervosa-sports anorexia. Thus, a person is more likely to have anorexia athletica if someone in their immediate family has had the disorder. Not only genetics, but also the environment a person is in, has a major impact on the disorder. Coaches and parents often suggest to their athlete/child to lose weight in order to perform better. Sports such as figure skating, ballet, and gymnastics promote both male and female athletes to have a thin figure. Females who partake in sports can suffer from a syndrome known as the triad. The media play a very significant role in pressuring athletes to have the ‘perfect’ body and to be thin, which can also trigger sports anorexia.

Video game play has been constantly associated with obesity. Many studies have been conducted on the link between television & video games and increased BMI (Body Mass Index). Due to video games replacing physical activities, there appears to be a clear association between time spent playing video games and increased BMI in young children. One such study produced data that indicated that boys who spend less than 1.5 hours on the television and playing video games, were 75.4% less likely to be overweight than those who spend more than 1.5 hours.

A study conducted in 2011 formalized the association of video game play and an increase in food intake in teens. A single session of video game play resulted in an increase in food intake, regardless of appetite. The recent trend of "active video games" revolving around the Wii and Xbox Kinect might be a way to help combat the aforementioned problem however this finding still needs confirmation from other studies. Furthermore, a study conducted in Baylor College of Medicine revolving around children claims that there is no evidence which supports the belief that acquiring an active video game under naturalistic circumstance would result in a beneficial outcome toward children. The study produced no results showing an increased amount of physical activity within the children receiving the active video games. It has been estimated that children in the United States are spending 25 percent of their waking hours watching television and playing video games. Statistically the children who watch the most hours of television or play video games have the highest incidence of obesity we can see.

There are positive and negative consequences of tube feeding. It is important to wean the child as soon as possible. The longer a child will be tube fed the higher the risk of becoming tube dependent.

Positive consequences:

- establishing life-supporting functions

- improving quality of life after severe medical conditions

- simple control of food intake and positive effect on growth

Negative consequences:

- excessive vomiting, retching and gagging

- reflux diseases, dislocations of feeding tubes, skin irritationss and skin inflammations

- reduced development of oral autonomy, lack of learning to eat autonomously

- impairment in speech, social and motor development

- active food refusal, oral hypersensitivity, food phobia

- strong defense against any contact with fluids, pureed and solid food

- interactive problems and burden to the family, social and financial stress

Tube dependency develops in children who have the physical ability to ingest and digest food, but failed to be weaned off their temporary intended tube by traditional means and resist/refuse or cannot make the transition to natural oral feeding. It occurs after the phase of critical medical treatment and interventions when the child is expected to resume or start oral intake.

The medical reasons affecting oral explorative behavior, appetite, sucking and swallowing coordination are diverse, including extreme prematurity, neonatal or postnatal operations, intensive care, parenteral feeding, respiratory support and many more.

Many children are tube-fed during the critical age and the stage of developing oral skills. They may have neuromuscular and sensory conditions requiring physio-occupational and speech and language therapy before becoming ready for learning to eat.

The condition also has psychological and social causes. Children who have experienced oral trauma or have been exposed to medicines with bad flavors may become reluctant to repeat oral experiences.

Many children have been on the receiving end of well-intended encouragement and intrusive feeding attempts or even forced feeding, resulting in growing refusal and oppositional behavior. As the phenomenon of tube dependency is hardly recognized as a problem or functional disorder, there is no scientific data on the issue of incidence or risk of development nor epidemiology in countries with a high standard of neonatal medicine and surgery.

A sedentary lifestyle plays a significant role in obesity. Worldwide there has been a large shift towards less physically demanding work, and currently at least 30% of the world's population gets insufficient exercise. This is primarily due to increasing use of mechanized transportation and a greater prevalence of labor-saving technology in the home. In children, there appear to be declines in levels of physical activity due to less walking and physical education. World trends in active leisure time physical activity are less clear. The World Health Organization indicates people worldwide are taking up less active recreational pursuits, while a study from Finland found an increase and a study from the United States found leisure-time physical activity has not changed significantly. A 2011 review of physical activity in children found that it may not be a significant contributor.

In both children and adults, there is an association between television viewing time and the risk of obesity. A review found 63 of 73 studies (86%) showed an increased rate of childhood obesity with increased media exposure, with rates increasing proportionally to time spent watching television.

Obesity is one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide. A number of reviews have found that mortality risk is lowest at a BMI of 20–25 kg/m in non-smokers and at 24–27 kg/m in current smokers, with risk increasing along with changes in either direction. This appears to apply in at least four continents. In contrast, a 2013 review found that grade 1 obesity (BMI 30-35) was not associated with higher mortality than normal weight, and that overweight (BMI 25-30) was associated with "lower" mortality than was normal weight (BMI 18.5-25). Other evidence suggests that the association of BMI and waist circumference with mortality is U- or J-shaped, while the association between waist-to-hip ratio and waist-to-height ratio with mortality is more positive. In Asians the risk of negative health effects begins to increase between 22–25 kg/m. A BMI above 32 kg/m has been associated with a doubled mortality rate among women over a 16-year period. In the United States, obesity is estimated to cause 111,909 to 365,000 deaths per year, while 1 million (7.7%) of deaths in Europe are attributed to excess weight. On average, obesity reduces life expectancy by six to seven years, a BMI of 30–35 kg/m reduces life expectancy by two to four years, while severe obesity (BMI > 40 kg/m) reduces life expectancy by ten years.

Obesity in Mexico is a relatively recent phenomenon, having been widespread since the 1980s with the introduction of processed food into much of the Mexican food market. Prior to that, dietary issues were limited to under and malnutrition, which is still a problem in various parts of the country. Following trends already ongoing in other parts of the world, Mexicans have been foregoing traditional whole grains and vegetables in favor of a diet with more animal products, more fat, and more sugar much of which is a consequence of processed food. It has seen dietary energy intake and rates of overweight and obese people rise with seven out of ten at least overweight and a third clinically obese.

Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism or noctambulism, is a phenomenon of combined sleep and wakefulness. It is classified as a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. It occurs during slow wave sleep stage, in a state of low consciousness, with performance of activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness. These activities can be as benign as sitting up in bed, walking to a bathroom, and cleaning, or as hazardous as cooking, driving, violent gestures, grabbing at hallucinated objects, or even homicide.

Although sleepwalking cases generally consist of simple, repeated behaviours, there are occasionally reports of people performing complex behaviours while asleep, although their legitimacy is often disputed. Sleepwalkers often have little or no memory of the incident, as their consciousness has altered into a state in which it is harder to recall memories. Although their eyes are open, their expression is dim and glazed over. This may last from 30 seconds to 30 minutes.

Sleepwalking occurs during slow-wave sleep (N3) of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM sleep) cycles. It typically occurs within the first third of the night when slow-wave sleep is most prominent. Usually, it will occur once in a night, if at all.

Until the late 20th century, dietary issues in Mexico were solely a question of undernutrition or malnutrition, generally because of poverty and distribution issues. For this reason, obesity was associated with wealth and health, the latter especially in children. Despite changes in the Mexican diet and food distribution, malnutrition still remains problematic in various parts of the country.