Topic 2 The role of family, eating habits, organizational aspects and skills

Overweight parents are more likely to have overweight children

There is a great influence of parental dietary habits on dietary behaviors of their children

Role modeling behaviors:

✔ Providing healthy foods

✔ Sharing meals with children

✔ Having breakfast together

✔ Encouraging children to have healthy snacks

✔ The home food environment determines what kind of foods are available and accessible to children

🡪 The encouragement practice gives children a chance of making decisions

🡪 The moderate restriction practice helps parents to imply clearer instructions to their children

X Excessive pressure or restriction

X Using foods as rewards

The change in the family structure (both parents working, lack of social support, fast-paced rhythms) makes it difficult to organize healthy meals by favoring the more frequent use of industrial and pre-prepared foods.

In addition, parents often lack the knowledge and skills about healthy cooking.