Culture Post: Dads Help Shape Eating Habits of Their Children

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

A dad’s eating habits can have a profound effect on their kid’s diets, even when those children are nothing but a twinkle in his eye, a new study says.

Men who established a healthy diet as teens were more likely to model healthy eating for their kids, and to keep a sharp eye on what their kids eat, researchers reported Saturday at a meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando, Fl.

“Our study found that fathers who ate healthier as teenagers were more likely to encourage positive food habits in their children,” lead author Mariane De Oliveira, a postdoctoral research fellow at Boston College, said in a news release.

“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,” she added.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 669 men who answered questionnaires about their teenage eating habits, and years later answered questions about their kids’ diet.

Those men whose diet improved during their teen years were 90% more likely to model healthy eating as fathers, results show.

They also were 60% more likely to monitor what their kids ate, researchers said.

As a result, their children were significantly more likely to eat the recommended daily amounts of fruits and vegetables, compared to kids with dads who had unhealthy diets as teens, researchers said.

Source: HealthDay
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-mother-warmth-childhood-teen-health.html

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