Study Proves Your Kids Don't Care What You Eat

Worried about your junk food addiction translating to an overweight child? Think that eating healthfully around them will lead to healthful craving in the child as they grow up? As it turns out, neither worry is founded in reality, as a new study shows that parental eating habits don't influence children as much as previously thought.

Scientists working at Bloomberg School's Center for Human Nutrition have recently published their study of children and their eating habits in the May 25 issue of the journal Social Science and Medicine. In the study, they found that about 10% of the child participants' eating habits were due to parental influence, whereas societal and peer influence was heavy. They also found the influence of parental education levels or income was less than had been previously assumed.

The lead researcher, Dr. Youfa Wang, claims that the results should be used to help encourage schools to commit to healthy eating as early as possible, starting at the age of 2. They claim that, once the child leaves the home and begins eating around peers at school, the influence of what they are offered, and what they are encouraged to eat, can have lifelong ramifications. Previous studies have shown that encouraging healthy eating in babies and small toddlers can help them develop a taste for healthful foods.

The study was conducted with help from both the United States government and Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, in an attempt to help stop the increasing epidemic of childhood obesity. It focused on a group of 5,000 participants, equally divided into mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. They looked at the diets of each, grading them from 1-100 in terms of healthfulness, with 100 being perfect. The study participants' rating averaged to be 48-50. The data used was taken by U.S. Department of Agriculture Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals 1994-1996. Since then, according to this USDA-developed scale, only 10% of Americans in 2000 scored higher than an 80, or were judged to be "good."

While it may be true that peers and their environments influence children the most, the parental role in encouraging healthful eating should not be dismissed entirely. Most experts agree that treating childhood obesity is best done as a family, rather than having only the child go on a special diet. And everyone agrees that beginning as early as possible to develop healthy eating habits in children is key to them craving healthful foods as they continue through life.

So, the overall advice experts are giving to parents, given the recent studies, is common-sense-based. You should follow your doctor's recommendations when it comes to preparing baby and toddler foods, since most of them are the precursor to healthy eating in the future. Specifically, you should monitor your baby's and toddler's salt and sugar intake as much as possible, in order to avoid them needing heavily sugared or salty foods to feel satisfied as they get older. Once that wheel is set in motion, however, parents can relax a bit about their own roles as eating role models, but should be extra vigilant about what is being offered to their children when they are out of the house.

"Parents' Healthy Eating Habits Hold Little Sway On Children"

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/06/05/diet-healthy-children.html

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