BALTIMORE, Jun 1, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The conventional wisdom that
parents' dietary choices help children establish their eating behaviors may be
incorrect, U.S. researchers suggest.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examined the
dietary intake and patterns among U.S. families and found the resemblance
between children's and their parent's eating habits was weak.
Average dietary intake and dietary quality indicators were assessed using two
24-hour dietary recalls provided by study participants.
Senior author Dr. Youfa Wang assessed the overall quality of the participating
children's and their parents' diets. Child-parent dietary resemblance in the
U.S. is relatively weak, and varies by nutrients and food groups, he said.
"Factors other than parental eating behaviors such as community and school, food
environment, peer influence, television viewing, as well as individual factors
such as self-image and self-esteem seem to play an important role in young
people's dietary intake," study co-author May A. Beydoun, a former post-doctoral
research fellow at the Bloomberg School, said in a statement.
The study was published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.
URL: www.upi.com
Copyright 2009 by United Press International