As parents, are the genetics we give to our kids or the lifestyle we live and model more responsible for their current and future health and well being?   Do the choices we make and how we eat within our families set the tone for our kids future health and well being?

Studies have shown that the more a family eats together, the more there are opportunities for the child to assimilate health behaviors, such as healthy or unhealthy food intake.  Since dietary habits, such as vegetable and fruit intake or food behavior, in general are usually learned during childhood and may track into adulthood.   For a child, the home environment is of special significance: parents can control the availability and accessibility of foods (physical environment) as well as create social norms, offer social support and act as role models regarding healthy eating during family meals (social environment).

A recent paper reported important similarities in food consumption among families: 6–16-year-old children shared almost identical dietary patterns with their mothers, and significant similarity was also detected between the children and their fathers.  On average, father-child resemblance was 0.50, whereas mother-child resemblance was 0.57. Father-daughter and father-son resemblances did not differ from each other. Similarly, no statistically significant differences were detected between mother-daughter and mother-son resemblances.  

Interestingly, in another recently published paper, it suggested that parent-child similarity may be stronger in healthy food consumption than in unhealthy food consumption.  Furthermore, our stronger resemblance can partly be related to the age of the participants: according to a review by Wang et al., younger children (< 10 years of age) have stronger correlations with their parents than older children.

Based on the available research, it becomes clear that parents who adopt, implement, and model healthier behaviors themselves, are more likely to be successful at preventing their child from becoming overweight or in helping them lose weight. No matter what the genetic or predetermined risk of obesity is for a child, we as parents still have a lot of control over our child’s home environment and their dietary and activity choices. Making these changes may have a positive impact on a child’s future weight status.

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2018 15:62