Aug. 8, 2003 -- A mother's eating patterns influence her daught
Aug. 8, 2003 -- A mother's eating patterns influence her daughter's diet, especially when it comes to eating high-fat foods, a new study shows.
The study, appearing in the August issue of American Journal of Health Behavior, suggests that mothers who are behaving in health-enhancing or health-compromising ways are teaching these behaviors to their children. The studyshows that there is a significant link between the amount of fat that mothers and their adolescent daughters eat. On the flip side, a mother's fiber intake had no influence on how much fiber her daughters ate.
"Limiting consumption of high-fat snack foods and fast foods may be an important dietary behavior that girls choose to emulate in their mothers in an attempt to diet and control their weight, whereas fiber consumption may not be an area women target when trying to lose weight," Cassandra Stanton, PhD, of Brown University says in a news release.
Stanton's team looked at the diet of 400 mother-child pairs in rural areas of New York and Virginia. The mothers and daughters tracked their daily food intake in a diary during a two-year process. Afterward, researchers calculated the number of grams of fat and fiber in each reported food they ate. Researchers also took into consideration demographics and home environment factors.
Black Children Most Influenced by Mother's Diet
The link between what mothers ate and what their children ate was noticeable only with daughters. The findings showed that the strongest influence was among black mothers and daughters.
The tie between mother-daughter eating habits still leaves some unanswered questions. For instance, if one daughter eats 100 grams of fat a day and another daughter eats 75 grams of fat a day, only 25% of the difference could be related to their mother's fat consumption, while 75% may be caused by other factors.
Researchers say recent evidence shows that only 1% of American children have diets that meet current dietary guidelines, and as much as 45% of children's energy intake comes from sugar and fat. The authors say that there is a "clear need to understand the home environment and it's impact on the establishment of eating behaviors among youth that may put them at risk for life-threatening disease in adulthood."
