Parents’ eating habits have an impact on their children’s diet

Turns out, your eating habits, especially if you're a dad, might be shaping your child's relationship with food more than you think. If you have ever been careless about your diet and made your kids eat their ‘veggies’, that won’t really provide the desired effects. A recent study suggested that a father’s diet during his teenage years could have a lasting impact on his future children’s eating habits.

The new study conducted by researchers at Boston College has shed light on the often-overlooked role of dads in shaping childhood nutrition. The researchers found that children were significantly more likely to eat fruits and vegetables if their fathers had healthier diets during adolescence. 669 men took part in the study, and they answered questionnaires about their eating habits during adolescence and then, years later, provided information about their attitudes and behaviors surrounding their children’s diet.

“Our study found that fathers who ate healthier as teenagers were more likely to encourage positive food habits in their children. These fathers were better at modeling healthy eating—actively demonstrating good dietary habits—and monitoring their child's intake of unhealthy foods, such as certain sweets and snack foods,” Mariane H. De Oliveira, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Boston College, said in a statement.

The participants in the study were part of a sub-study known as Fathers & Family, stemming from the larger Growing Up Today Study. The original study began in the 1990s and 2000s and followed children of nurses over time. The fathers in the current analysis had all completed at least two dietary questionnaires during adolescence and had children aged 1 to 6 years in 2021 or 2022. About 44% of the participants had poor diet quality during adolescence, 40% had declining diet quality, and 16% had improving diet quality. Later in the follow-up study, the researchers collected data about the participants’ sociodemographic factors, their child’s diet, their own diet, and their approach to monitoring and managing their children’s access to unhealthy foods.

They found that men whose diet quality had improved during adolescence were 90% more likely to model healthy eating when they became fathers, 60% more likely to monitor healthy eating in their children, compared with fathers who had a poor diet in adolescence. Also, the children of fathers whose diet quality had improved during adolescence were significantly more likely to meet dietary recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption compared with children whose fathers had poor or declining diet quality in adolescence.

The researchers emphasized that these findings stress the importance of encouraging healthy eating in all demographic groups, including young people who may one day become parents.

“Healthy eating habits formed during adolescence not only benefit individuals but also shape future parenting behaviors, contributing to better nutrition for the next generation. This is especially significant given the growing concerns around childhood obesity and poor dietary habits. Investing in adolescent nutrition, including for boys, can have lasting, intergenerational benefits,” De Oliveira added.

The study also found that eating regular family meals during adolescence did not predict better dietary patterns later in life.