- Eating adult meals is the most important factor affecting whether a child’s diet is healthy, according to new study
- When children’s requests were indulged they frequently ate foods which with more calories and fewer nutrients, it found
By
Paul Bentley
09:02 EST, 5 May 2013
|
03:40 EST, 6 May 2013
If you’re ever tempted to give in to your children’s demands for chicken nuggets and chips for tea, bear this in mind.
Children who eat the same food as their parents rather than being indulged with ‘kids’ meals’ are far more likely to have healthy diets, research has found.
In fact, eating adult meals is the most important factor in determining whether a child’s diet will be healthy – far more so than whether they snack between meals, skip dinner, or insist on eating in the living room in front of the television.
Indulged: A boy squirts ketchup onto a plate of potato wedges. A study that when children’s requests were indulged they often ate foods, such as pizza and chips, which are more calorie-dense and offer fewer nutrients
‘Offering separate “children’s food†for a main meal may often result in children missing out nutritionally, for example if vegetables are omitted,’ said Valeria Skafida, a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Research for Families and Relationships.
‘It is likely that in cases where children eat different foods, they are eating a less nutritious option.’
There is growing concern about the marketing of ready meals at children, with experts suggesting that Britain is almost alone in Europe in the way parents ‘dumb down’ meals for their children.
MOTHERS COOKING TWO MEALS A DAY DUE TO DIETARY NEEDS
Fussy eaters, dieters, and those with food intolerances are mean hard-pressed mothers are forced to cook at least two different dishes each day for the evening meal, new research suggests.
Two-thirds of households consider themselves to have special dietary requirements, which has led to the increase in time spent in the kitchen, according to a Sainsbury’s study.
The research shows how our eating habits at home are still surprisingly traditional, with women doing the vast majority (86 per cent) of the meal planning, shopping, and cooking.
The supermarket’s new research, which involved 2,500 families with children aged between five and 12, also highlighted a cost many busy women may not be aware of: getting fathers to do the food shopping pushes the budget up by hundreds of pounds a year.
On average, men who do the food shopping spend an extra £235 a year, or £1,175 every five years, largely because they tend not to plan meals before they set out and so are more susceptible to impulse buys.
The study into the eating habits of 2,200 five-year-olds found that when children’s requests were indulged, they often ate foods, such as pizza and chips, which are more calorie-dense and offer fewer nutrients.
First-born children were more likely, as a result, to have better diets than their younger siblings, as standards slipped at home.
A quarter of parents surveyed said family meals were never or only occasionally enjoyable for everyone, with a fifth claiming they rarely had time to sit down and have proper conversations while eating.
The authors of the study, which was published in Sociology of Health and Illness, suggested it is fine for busy parents to eat at a different time to their children – as long as the meals were always the same.
‘Eating the same food is more important than eating together,’ Dr Skafida added.
‘It’s good news for a parent with busy work schedules who can’t eat with their kids. They shouldn’t feel bad. If you can’t eat with them, then at least make sure they eat the same food as you.
‘There shouldn’t be one meal for father, one meal for the older daughter, one meal for mum, and so on. Cook in one pot for all.’
Thing of the past? A quarter of parents said family meals were never or only occasionally enjoyable for everyone, with a fifth claiming they rarely had time to sit down and have proper conversations while eating
Dr Colin Michie, chair of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s nutrition committee, said there is a link between feeding children separately and problems such as deficiencies in vitamin D, zinc and iron, which can cause problems with learning.
‘If children were eating what their parents eat – and, like the French, eating round the table – then we wouldn’t have the iron deficiency problem we have,’ he added.
‘If they sat together there are less chances of the kids manipulating the parent over food.’
Nutritionist Dr Michelle Storfer added: ‘It may be tempting for tired, pressurised parents to resort to the easier option – to avoid the time it takes to sit with a child and develop healthy eating habits.
‘But research has shown the nutritional intake and growth rate of children between the ages of 2 and 12 can have a profound influence on their susceptibility to obesity and chronic diseases in later years.
‘The food you feed your children now does not only influence their weight and health in the short-term, it can adversely affect their health in the future.’
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I think this article is misleading. Some parents eat pizza and chips and little else and feed their children the same rubbish in adult sized portions which if you take the headline at face value suggests their kids will be healthy! Quite clearly they will be fat!
KA
,
London.,
06/5/2013 08:31
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In France, there isn’t a separate children’s menu when you go out to eat. You just order a smaller version of an adult meal. And their school menus are wonderful… they have several courses and it’s all healthy stuff. It’s the attitude to food that’s different over there. And as for cooking separate meals every night – since being weaned, my child has always been fed what we’ve cooked, and he’s the least fussy eater I’ve ever come across.
Jan
,
Sussex,
06/5/2013 08:24
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When I was a child we all ate the same food. Having lived in France Spain for many years i can also say that ‘childs meal’ means half portions NOT chicken nuggets baked beans.
I love to see children in France Spain tucking into fresh mussels, fish with bones etc. In the UK most children think fish only comes with batter or breadcrumbs! Our children ate the same as us and love good fresh food including salad and veg. if they didn’t like something, they left it (ie beetroot, asparagus. carrots). But, on the whole, they ater everything………….there was no choice and now my grandchildren are the same. My 11 year old grandson’s favourite food is shell on prawns lightly fried or grilled fried in garlic olive oil..
John
,
Devon, United Kingdom,
06/5/2013 08:21
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Back in the 1930s, when poverty really did exist, all children, even babies being weaned, ate exactly the same food as their parents, stayed at the table until all finished. Special baby formulas were beyond the pockets of workers, but look how well healthy the kids were…all able to go to work at 14 to contribute to the family purse. Now many can’t earn a living at an age some of us were being demobbed at! And not just due to lack of jobs!
Peter
,
Sutton, United Kingdom,
06/5/2013 07:51
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I think the best food to eat if you want to be healthy is indian food. It’s flavorful and very healthy. But best of all, it makes vegatables and lentils taste really nice. I’m sure if you introduce it to children early enough they can get use to it. – Me , London – – – – – – – Really? Indian food is very healthy? I don’t think you know what you’re talking about. If you’d said vegetarian Indian food, I’d have said yes it’s likely, but just Indian food? Please!
– Abimbola, Surrey, 5/5/2013 21:19____proper Indian food is healthy .. not the stuff from the local take away .. home made
NickO
,
Rochester, United Kingdom,
06/5/2013 07:45
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On saturday I made 2 different dinners of the same thing .. chilli con carne .. one with hot chillies and one with normal .. we all loved it. I had the hot and the others had not so hot. good news as there was enough for my dinner the next day.
NickO
,
Rochester, United Kingdom,
06/5/2013 07:42
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Why is this news even? It’s basic common sense.
Catherine
,
Australia, Australia,
06/5/2013 07:34
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I can’t stand children that are “picky eaters†or parents that hover between the cupboard and the freezer whilst asking for their children’s preference as to what they would like to eat …………individually!!! My sister once asked her 9 year old son if he wanted his drink in a tall glass or a short one…….whilst waiting on him at table!
Children should be expected to “try†every food they are given without a parent making facial expressions on their child’s behalf in aticipation of the child’s “re-actionâ€! I could easily go on about this subject but I won’t.
Duped
,
Utopia, France,
06/5/2013 07:34
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Living in Germany and also in France for decades I found that all children were expected to eat the same food as their parents. It was a pleasure to dine in a restaurant there and see them all as a family enjoying a lovely healthy meal together.
Millymollymandy73
,
Hants, United Kingdom,
06/5/2013 07:34
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I’ve been vegetarian for yonks and my children got the same as us from the day they started on solids. No baby food for them, a mouli grater and they ate the same vegetables and legumes. They have both grown up into slim, healthy strong young adults and one of them insists on growing his own vegetables even though he works very hard in his own business because he believes in such a healthy diet. I can’t understand mothers who give in to something different, if they always have the same as their parents it’s much easier and better for the children, providing the parents have a healthy diet that is.
me_nowhere
,
soon to be free of the colony, Australia,
06/5/2013 07:10
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