EXTENSION REPORT

Do you want to give your children a gift that keeps on giving? Teach them how to eat right as early as possible in life, advises Dr. Robert Keith an Alabama Cooperative Extension System nutrition and health specialist and Auburn University professor of nutrition and food science.

A study of children in Finland is only the latest of several studies showing that children taught at a young age to eat more nutritious diets can benefit from this teaching for the rest of their lives. The study showed that those who were taught to focus on healthy fats principally derived from fish, nuts, seeds and plant oils had slightly lower cholesterol than those who ate an unrestricted diet.

Perhaps the most important insight of all associated with the study is that the findings underscore a widely held belief among nutritionists that children begin forming their lifestyle habits early in life — a view shared by Dr. Keith. “This isn’t the first study to show that diet and eating habits are established early — as early as age 3,” says Keith.

There is a pervasive belief throughout society that everyone has a role to play in reinforcing good lifestyle — government, schools, the health sector and food manufacturers — and this is true. Keith says, “early in children’s lives, parents have the most crucial role to play in promoting healthy eating and other positive lifestyle habits”.

“For young children, parents are the most important variable,” he states, adding that the most severe child obesity problems are more likely to be experienced by children who were least exposed to healthy eating and lifestyle practices in early childhood. “If parents can get healthy eating patterns started early in life, these tend to carry over into the teenage years and even into adulthood”.

So, how can parents reinforce good eating habits? For starters, by finding creative ways to make healthy eating fun. A lot of that calls for plain, old-fashioned persistence, Keith says. “They need to make their meals fun, but even if they don’t succeed the first time, it is no excuse to quit emphasizing these foods,” he says. “Over time, with repeated exposures to healthy foods and seeing their parents eating healthy foods, they will too.”

The need to emphasize outdoor play and other types of exercise is equally important, Keith says — and the sooner the better. As children mature, the chances of reversing poor eating and exercise habits grow increasingly bleak. “If they’re overweight or obese by the time they are 15 or 16, they’re likely to be that way the rest of their lives,” Keith says.

Keith says our experience with eating habits of other cultures should underscore just how much habit plays into food preferences. “Many of us have visited homes of people who don’t eat standard American fare and wonder why they like the foods they do, but it’s because it’s a part of their culture, just as certain foods are to ours. And, like us, they have been eating the foods since they were children.”

Thanks to Jim Languster and Dr. Robert Keith for the information for this article.

Email address:swingard@aces.edu
Phone: 937-7176 or 943-5611, 928-0860, ext. 2222

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work in agriculture and home economics, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, and other related acts, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (Alabama A&M University and Auburn University) offers educational programs, materials, and equal opportunity employment to all people without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, veteran status, or disability.