I've always worked hard to set a good example for my kids when it comes to food choices. I try to make fruits and vegetables a staple in our diet and prepare meals that are generally healthy. But a new study says my hard work might not payoff, because kids aren't paying attention to the example their parents are setting. A study in the journal Social Science and Medicine looked at a sample of adults and their children, ages 2 to 18. Researchers used questionnaires to track their eating habits and found little resemblance between the calorie and nutrient consumption of the parents and children. Older children were the least likely to have a diet resembling their parents, which isn't surprising. The older kids get, the more they are influenced by peers, what they see on T.V. and other outside sources. The children's' diet did resemble their mothers more than fathers, but family income and parental education did not have an effect on the results. I'd be interested to see a breakdown of these results by age group. I'm not surprised at the results for older children, but I would think the responses for younger children would be much different. My daughter is 2 and I basically control everything she eats, since she's a little young to cook for herself. I also think that if you show kids that food can be healthy but still taste good, they learn from that. Eventually she's going to have the freedom to decide if she wants a McDonald's Big Mac for dinner. My hope is that she'll know that it's OK to enjoy those kinds of things now and then if she wants them, but that normally she'd make healthier choices--and that's because of the example I will always set for her. Am I being overly optimistic? So I'm a little skeptical about these results. What do you think? Do you feel like your example affects the food choices your children make? |
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