Children who are picky eaters tend to eat less well as adults.
- One in two children are picky eaters.
- This can have consequences in adulthood, particularly regarding diet quality and excess weight.
- Being overweight is problematic in terms of health, because it often combines with many other pathologies.
A new study conducted in the Netherlands revealed that children who are picky eaters tend to eat less healthily as adults.
Eating: one in two children is picky
As nearly one in two children are picky eaters, researchers wanted to know if this had consequences on their diet once they reached adulthood. They therefore conducted a new study which used data from the KOALA Birth Cohort Study. The cohort included 2,768 women from the southeast of the Netherlands and their offspring.
The data used in this research dates from 2007. When their children were aged 4 to 5 years, their mother answered questions to assess their relationship with food. Later, in 2021, the same children aged around 18 filled in what they used to eat, their weight and their height.
Being picky eaters during childhood associated with less healthy eating in adulthood
Results: children who were choosy at the age of 4-5 years old consumed fruits, raw and cooked vegetables, fish and dairy products less often 14 years later. In contrast, no association was found between difficulty eating small and consumption of sugary drinks, snacks, meat or eggs at age 18 and older.
The young adults who were the least difficult as children also had body mass indices that were more within the norm than the others.
“Being picky eaters during childhood is associated with lower frequencies of consumption of various healthy foods among young adults. It is therefore recommended that special attention be paid to this type of childhood worry.”conclude the authors of the study, the results of which were published in the scientific journal Appetite.
Food, overweight, obesity and diseases
In 2020, nearly one in two French people (47.3%) were overweight or obese, according to figures from a new Odoxa survey for The League Against Obesity.
Being overweight is problematic in terms of health, because it often combines with many other diseases (18, potentially). High blood pressure and cardiovascular pathologies are twice as common among obese people as in the general population. For diabetes, the ratio is even 1 to 3.
