Research: Your kids are what you eat

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/uod-ry070616.php

Public Release: 6-Jul-2016
Research: Your kids are what you eat
UD study shows close relationship between diet quality of parents, kids
University of Delaware

"You are what you eat." That's not to say you become a carrot if you eat carrots, of course, but rather that a regular pattern of eating carrots will shape you in a much different way than a regular pattern of eating cotton candy.

Now researchers are suggesting there may be a lesser-known corollary -- "Your kids are what you eat."

In a new analysis of parent-child diet quality and calories consumed, a team of seven researchers found the two are related in significant ways, a connection that could lead to better strategies as the nation works to address the growing public health problems of obesity and related conditions such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

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After controlling for demographics, neighborhood type and body-mass index, researchers found parental diet to be the strongest predictor of a child's diet quality.

They found two clear culprits for poorer diet quality among children: too few vegetables and too many empty calories.

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