Child’s Diet Affected by Grandparents’ Diets
(Ivanhoe Newswire) – The eating habits of a child’s grandparents may have a bigger impact on their eating habits than the habits of their parents, according to new research from Monash University in Australia.
Researchers examined a national survey of nearly 4200 Taiwanese students and elderly people, and found the quality of a child’s diet was strongly associated with the dietary habits of their grandparents. Even after accounting for other factors which were linked to healthier dietary habits, such as income, parent education, and amount of time watching television, researchers found the grandchildren of healthy eaters have healthier eating habits.
“It is likely that the grandparent generation is transmitting what the cultural group has acquired over several generations, modulated by their children and grandchildren,” study lead Mark Wahlqvist was quoted as saying. “Our findings suggest that a decline in nutritional capacity in communities, represented by intergenerational transfer of food patterns, may place community health at risk. At the same time, the observations suggest that intervening with healthy eating measures in one generation may benefit other generations as well.”
For more information, go to: http://monash.edu/news/show/diet-quality-links-old-and-young
SOURCE: Ecology of Food and Nutrition, December 2013
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