Food habits developed as a child stay with you forever, and what you were fed as a youngster influences eating habits in later life, more than TV or advice from doctors, according to new research.
Parenting on Female First
The biggest influence of what adults eat today is driven by the foods they were given by their parents when they were young, and the parental advice they were given on healthy foods.
Current advice from doctors, foods seen on TV, information found on internet forums or what adults hear that celebrities eat, had less effect on the foods that they consume.
Family bakers, Warburtons, quizzed over 2,000 parents in order to paint a picture of how our eating habits are shaped.
The research found that most parents’ main concern when feeding their children is that the foods are healthy for them, with the child’s enjoyment or taste of food coming a close second.
Food psychologist, Dr Christy Fergusson, said: “We all know what we feed our kids is important, but many parents will be surprised to hear of the lifetime effect it can have on food choices.
“For this reason, it’s vital that parents lead by example and eat a varied and balanced diet with their children, to ensure they grow up knowing how to eat nutritiously.”
Despite best intentions to build a well-balanced diet for their children, unwittingly parents may be passing on food habits through their own diet choices.
Half of parents surveyed admitted to avoiding or cutting out food groups, the most common being desserts/sugary foods, seafood, meat, carbs, green vegetables and dairy.
Of the parents who said they cut out foods, one in five said they learnt this habit from their mums and dads.
The government Eatwell plate lays out the proportions of each food group a person should eat for a balanced diet, including the starchy carbohydrates, meat, seafood, dairy, sugars and vegetables that many parents surveyed admit to cutting out.
Despite the Eatwell plate recommending that a third of each meal being made up from starchy carbs, such as bread, one in five parents admit to removing or cutting down on bread in their diet, despite it being a nutritious food. The main reason stated for cutting down on bread was that their parents told them it was bad for them.
The Warburtons survey follows a recent discussion paper published in Nutrition Bulletin by Dr Aine O’Connor, a Nutrition scientist from the British Nutrition Foundation, which considers the nutritional benefits of eating starchy foods.
Starch and sugar provide the body with energy and carbohydrate, in the form of glucose, the preferred energy source for our body. The paper notes that some organs, including the brain, mainly rely on glucose for fuel.
Dr O’Connor, Nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation explained: “A lot of what is said about bread and other starchy carbohydrate foods is based on anecdotes and not on robust science.
"Despite bread consumption falling in the last few decades, it still contributes a fifth of our daily fibre and calcium intakes, more than 10 per cent of our daily intake of protein, thaimin, folate, niacin, iron, zinc, copper and magnesium intake.”
The importance of setting positive food attitudes lasts longer than one lifetime, it can transcend generations. Parents surveyed by Warburtons were 37 per cent more likely to feed their own children healthily if they were fed healthy meals by their own parents during childhood.
This is of little surprise, as half of parents say they feed their children similar foods to those they were given by their own parents.
To help parents pass positive food habits on to their children, Dr Christy Fergusson has the following tips:
1. Stock your cupboards with healthy options and make them readily available so children develop tastes for good food.
2. As children pick up on your relationship with food, be careful how you talk about your own body and what you eat, to ensure they understand the importance of a healthy balanced diet.
3. Don’t ban or make a fuss about certain foods being bad for children. Instead talk to them about the foods that they should eat, such as fruits, vegetables, protein and starchy carbs.