"Fueling Your Body Right: The Essential Guide to Eating Habits"

 

Research shows that parents' eating habits directly influence their children's eating habits 

A study from Aston University found that young children often have similar eating habits to their parents, and that parents'  eating styles influence the way they feed their children.

The study suggests that parents can help  shape their children's healthy eating habits both by feeding themselves and feeding their children. 

A team led by Professor Jacqueline Brissett from Aston University's Department of Psychology and the Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment (IHN)  asked parents to rate their own eating behavior and examined the association between this behavior and  their children's behavior. 

The research team classified parents into four eating styles: "typical eating," "greedy eating," "emotional eating," and "avoidant eating." Typical eaters, who made up 41.4% of the sample, do not exhibit extreme behaviors. Eager eaters (37.3%) have distinct eating approach characteristics, such as: B. Eating in response to food cues in the environment or emotions, rather than hunger signals. Emotional eaters (15.7%) also eat in response to emotions, but do not enjoy food as much as eager eaters. Avoidant eaters (5.6%) are very picky about food and rarely enjoy eating. 

The direct association between child and parent behavior was particularly pronounced among parents with eager or avoidant eating behaviors, whose children were also more likely to exhibit similar eating behaviors. Parents with eager or emotional eating behaviors were more likely to use food to soothe or comfort children who exhibited eager or emotional eating characteristics. When parents with eager or emotional eating habits provide balanced and varied  foods, their children are less likely to adopt the same behavior. 

The study follows the research team's previous work identifying four main types of children's eating behaviors and linking parents' eating habits to these characteristics. 

Parents have a decisive influence on their children's eating habits, but they also have a great opportunity to encourage  balanced  and healthy eating from an early age. It is therefore important to identify how parents' eating styles relate to their children's eating styles and what factors can be modified to promote a healthy relationship with food. " 

Dr. Abigail Pickard,  project principal investigator 

Going forward, she and the team plan to develop interventions to help parents manage their emotions, model healthy eating, and find alternative ways to create a healthy eating environment at home. This could help  prevent unfavorable eating habits from being passed down  from parent to child and from generation to generation. READ MORE