YMCA Healthy Living Magazine, powered by n4 food and health Spring 2018 | Page 4

DR TIM CROWE, PHD, ADVAPD, BSC(HONS), MNUTRDIET
Tim is a career research scientist and educator, and an Advanced Accredited
Practising Dietitian. Find out more at www.thinkingnutrition.com.au
THE SECRET TO
HEALTHY KIDS
If you want healthy kids, then eat well and feed them the same as what you eat. Dr Tim Crowe explains.
he routine of eating family meals together rubs off
as healthy eating habit for children, yet it’s not clear
what the key reasons for this are. Social bonding
and positive reinforcement of good nutrition are two
plausible reasons. meal times, frequent snacking between meals, eating in the
living room or bedroom, and an unpleasant atmosphere
during mealtimes, only had a minor influence on the quality of
children’s diets. It was eating the same food as the parents
that counted most.
Exploring the link between family meals and eating habits in
children, researchers from Scotland looked at the eating habits
of 2,332 children aged around five years. What they wanted to
explore was the extent to which family meal occurrence, meal
patterns and perceived meal enjoyment could predict the
quality of children’s diets. When children refuse to eat adult food during the family meal,
it is a common coping strategy for parents to create separate
and different child-friendly food alternatives. These alternative
meals can often be of inferior nutritional value to the family
meal. An example of this is the widespread phenomenon of
‘children’s menus’ at restaurants, which are typically of poorer
nutritional quality than adult equivalents.
T
Eating the same as parents came out on top
The clear predictor of healthy eating among children was
eating the same food as the rest of the family, and it didn’t
matter if it was together or even at different times. Children
were more likely to eat more fruit and vegetables, and less
fatty and salt-laden foods and fewer snacks – just like their
older family members – than children fed ‘child-friendly’
alternatives that the rest of family didn’t eat.
Other meal habits the researchers looked at such as infrequent
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YMCA HEALTHY LIVING MAGAZINE SPRING 2018
What it all means
Eating meals together as a family has many benefits for your
family unit. For young children though, they are nutritionally
better off eating the same food as everyone else at the table,
rather than reverting to a dedicated children’s menu – assuming
the older family members are making healthy choices!
The take-home message for parents here is, eating healthier
not only benefits you, but your kids as well.