Warning to parents: Picky eaters in childhood eat less healthy food as adults, study finds
Many parents know the regular struggle of getting a young “picky eater” to try new foods.
But fights at the dinner table could be the least of their worries, as a new study shows that picky kids could face a lifetime of poor health.
Experts from the Netherlands found that children who refused to eat a lot of food at the age of four to five were eating less fruit, vegetables, dairy and fish at age 18 than their non-picky counterparts.
The authors, who compared the eating habits of almost 1,000 people as children and adults over the age of 14 to 880 people, said the results highlighted how picky eating among children should not be dismissed.
Eating less healthy fruits and vegetables, as well as lean proteins like fish, can increase people’s risk for obesity and a host of other health problems.
Experts from the Netherlands found that children aged four to five who were picky eaters were fed less fruit, vegetables, dairy and fish at age 18 than their non-picky counterparts
But to reassure those who like to give children the occasional sweet treat, eating junk food such as fizzy drinks or snacks at a young age was not associated with a higher body mass index later in life.
The study, published in the journal pullwas based on results collected from almost 880 children growing up in the southeast of the Netherlands.
Researchers from Maastricht University interviewed the children’s mothers in 2007, when the children were between four and five years old.
Mothers were asked about their child’s eating habits and each child was given a score out of five for their pickiness, with the average child scoring a score of 2.24.
Fourteen years later, in 2021, the children, now 18, were interviewed about their food intake and how often they ate certain products.
The now adults were also asked about their height and weight to calculate their BMI.
Researchers found that the pickier children were more likely to eat fewer fruits and vegetables than those who were not as picky as children.
However, picky eating as a child was not associated with increased soda or snack intake as an adult.
When it comes to BMI, experts found that while non-fussy eating children were likely to achieve a healthy score later in life, picky eaters were not significantly more likely to be under or overweight.
The experts theorized that picky-eating children are more likely to grow into picky-eating adults, giving them “low-quality nutritional intake.”
However, they added that further research is needed as they re-ran the picky eating score test for adults.
They also recommended repeating the study with more participants to get a larger sample size for BMI measurements.
But they still said the findings showed the value of interventions in children’s eating habits to try to get them to eat new and different foods.
“Picky eating in childhood is associated with lower frequency of intake of several healthy foods among young adults,” they wrote.
“It is therefore advisable to pay sufficient attention to picky eating in young children,” the study authors conclude.
The authors added that another limitation of their study is that it did not take into account the portion size of foods eaten by adults, which may have affected the results.
WHAT SHOULD A BALANCED DIET LOOK LIKE?
Meals should be based on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, preferably whole grains, according to the NHS
• Eat at least 5 portions of varied fruit and vegetables every day. All fresh, frozen, dried and canned fruits and vegetables count
• Basic meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, preferably whole wheat
• 30 grams of fiber per day: This is the same as eating all of the following: 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 2 whole wheat cereal biscuits, 2 thick slices of whole wheat bread and a large baked potato with the skin still on
• Provide some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soy drinks), opting for lower fat and lower sugar options
• Eat some beans, legumes, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins (including 2 portions of fish per week, one portion of which is fatty)
• Choose unsaturated oils and spreads and consume them in small quantities
• Drink 6-8 cups/glasses of water per day
• Adults should have less than 6 g of salt and 20 g of saturated fat for women or 30 g for men per day
Source: NHS Eatwell guide