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Nutrition: So Now You’re What Your Children Eat?

New York Times
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: January 9, 2007

Adults who live with children eat more fat, and more saturated fat, than those who do not, according to a new study.

The report, published online last week in The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, was based on data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Survey, a six-year nationwide study of more than 33,000 people carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to background information in the article, the correlation between adults’ and children’s diets has usually been attributed to parental influence. But in the case of fat intake, it may be that children and teenagers, who consume more fat than other age groups, influence the diets of their parents.

The researchers gathered data based on 24-hour dietary recall from 6,600 adults, 48 percent of whom had at least one child under 17 in their household. After controlling for other variables, the presence of children was associated with an increased total fat consumption of 4.9 grams per day in adults, and an increased saturated fat consumption of 1.7 grams per day. Together, the total fat and saturated fat are the equivalent of a daily three-ounce serving of lean ham.

There was no association between the presence of children and the total number of calories consumed, but adults with children were more likely to eat pizza, cheese, cookies, ice cream, bacon and other high-fat foods.

“I think the important thing we should take away from this study,” said Dr. Helena H. Laroche, the lead author and an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa, “is that healthy nutrition should focus on the entire family, and not only on specific individuals within the family.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/health/nutrition/09nutr.html

Here's the actual research abstract:

Adult Fat Intake Associated with the Presence of Children in Households: Findings from NHANES III
Helena H. Laroche, MD, Timothy P. Hofer, MD, MSc and Matthew M. Davis, MD, MAPP

Background: Increasing prevalence of obesity and lifestyle related chronic disease is fundamentally tied to Americans’ poor eating habits. Family environment, including the presence of children, may affect adults’ diet behavior.

Objective: To compare dietary fat intake between adults with and without minor children in the home.

Design: Secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) public use dataset.

Subjects: Adults aged 17 to 65 years with and without children younger than 17 years old in the home.

Outcome variables: Intake of total fat, saturated fat, and kilocalories based on a 24-hour dietary recall and a selection of high-fat foods from a food frequency questionnaire.

Methods: Linear and logistic regression, accounting for the sample weights and complex survey design.

Results: The presence of children in the household was associated with significantly higher adjusted total fat consumption for adults (4.9 g/24 hours [95% CI: 0.8, 9.1]) and significantly higher adjusted saturated fat consumption (1.7 g/24 hours [0.3, 3.3]). Adults with children ate many high-fat foods more frequently than adults without children, including salty snacks, pizza, cheese, beef, ice cream, cakes/cookies, bacon/sausage/processed meats, and peanuts.

Conclusions: The presence of children in the home may affect adults’ diets. Providers should emphasize dietary discretion for the entire family.

Source: http://www.jabfm.org/cgi/content/full/20/1/9

I'd really like to see them do this again, but with sugar (and HFCS, of course) intake.