Eating behaviors of children in the context of their family environment

Abstract

Both a family history of obesity and early childhood obesity have been identified as strong predictors of adult obesity risk. The finding that parental obesity, maternal obesity in particular, increases a child’s risk for developing obesity suggests that either shared genes, or environment, or likely a combination of both may promote overeating and excessive weight gain in children. Parents not only create food environments for children’s early experiences with food and eating, but they also influence their children’s eating by modeling their own eating behaviors, taste preferences, and food choices. Thus, it is important to identify intermediary behavioral eating traits which promote overeating and obesity in children and to determine the extent to which associations between eating traits and excessive weight gain in children may be influenced by genetic factors, environmental factors, or both. Behavioral genetic methods can be used to help partition genetic and environmental sources of variability in behavioral traits. The focus of this paper is to review and discuss findings from both short-term experimental and prospective cohort studies on eating behaviors of children at various stages in their lives. Select child eating traits and parent-child resemblances in eating will be further examined in the context of children’s home environment and their familial predisposition to obesity.

The role of family communication and parents' feeding practices in children's food preferences

“…The family's food environment plays a major role in a child's food consumption (Bassett, Chapman, & Beagan, 2008;Birch & Davison, 2001;Kral & Rauh, 2010). Parents determine which foods and how much food children can access, and they serve as models for their children's food choices through their own food attitudes, preferences and behaviours (Birch, Savage, & Ventura, 2007).…”

Lifelong exposure to n-3 PUFA affects pubertal mammary gland development

“…Several studies have shown that supplementation of n-3 PUFA at discrete developmental stages such as during pregnancy or at weaning reduces the number of TEB in rats (Hilakivi-Clarke et al 2002bOlivo and Hilakivi-Clarke 2005) and subsequent tumour burden. Lifelong exposure to a consistent n-3 PUFA level, however, is more reflective of human dietary patterns, as dietary intakes of children tend to be similar to those of their parents (Kral and Rauh 2010).…”

Escolhas e hábitos alimentares em adolescentes: associação com padrões alimentares do agregado familiar

“…Por outro lado, importa destacar o papel da aprendizagem na aquisição de preferências alimentares em jovens (crianças e adolescentes), quer a aprendizagem formal (sobre alimentos saudáveis versus não saudáveis, por exemplo) quer a aprendizagem informal 2,3 . Nos processos de aprendizagem informal os pais desempenham um papel fundamental, nomeadamente através da modelação quanto a hábitos alimentares (aprendizagem vicariante, para os jovens) e da disponibilidade alimentar permitida (para além, obviamente, das recomendaç ões/permissões diretas quanto às escolhas alimentares dos jovens) 4 .…”

“…Sabe-se também que as práti-cas parentais potenciam a opção por determinados alimentos através da exposição repetida a esses alimentos 4,7 .…”