Setting the healthy example
by Jon Brooks
Children as young as five can tell if food is healthy or not according to research by UniSA. The research also confirms that children tend to follow their parent’s lead, despite many other influences.
The study conducted through UniSA’s Centre for Nutritional Physiology, entitled Parental Attitudes and Nutrition Knowledge, focused on more than 200 children aged five and six years and their parents.
The research was carried out by Honors student Dorota Zarnowiecki, under the supervision of Drs Natalie Sinn and Jim Dollman. Zarnowiecki has since been awarded with an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship to undertake her PhD at UniSA in Nutrition.
"What we were looking at was how parents can influence their kids, and the link between parents’ and children’s nutritional knowledge," Zarnowiecki said.
Zarnowiecki tested this by showing children and their parents 30 different pictures of food, and asking them to identify which were healthy and which weren’t.
"The results showed that the kids were able to tell the difference; but the strongest results from the study were that parent’s knowledge and children’s knowledge of healthy foods are closely linked," Zarnowiecki said.
"Parents’ attitudes toward health were also found to have a significant impact on children’s awareness of healthy foods. So if parents highly value health, then the kids will too.
"So it’s really up to parents to set the example, to talk to their children and eat the healthy foods as well."
Zarnowiecki said the research could be used as the basis for an education program to help parents promote healthy eating choices, and could form part of prenatal classes.
"Parenting doesn’t come with a rule book and when you’re a parent you’re expected to be a dietician, a counsellor, a teacher, a nurse - it’s just endless. That’s why we’d like to see extra information made available to parents to help make healthy, life-long choices for their children," she said.
"Having good knowledge of nutrition is going to help them make better choices and help them later on in life - from what fruits and vegetables to eat and how many serves of each, to choosing wholegrain bread over white bread for older children, or avoiding foods that have lots of added sugar in them like cakes – all the basic concepts."