With Father’s Day just around the corner, sons and daughters across the country are taking stock of all the ways their dads served as the perfect father figure. However, according to a new study, the inherited traits of their father figure may manifest more physically than previously known.
A team of researchers led by Dr. Mariane H. De Oliveira at Boston College found that a father’s diet during their teen years could impact the diet of the children they have later in life. Their findings were published by the American Society for Nutrition.
“Our study found that fathers who ate healthier as teenagers were more likely to encourage positive food habits in their children,” said De Oliveira. “These fathers were better at modeling healthy eating—actively demonstrating good dietary habits—and monitoring their child’s intake of unhealthy foods, such as certain sweets and snack foods.”
The participant pool included 669 men who were the children of nurses in the 1990s and early 2000s. They reportedly filled out questionnaires about their eating habits when they were kids and, later in life, detailed their “attitudes and behaviors” regarding their children’s diet, according to MedicalXpress. During the follow-up portion of the study, which took place in 2021 and 2022, each participant had a child aged 1 to 6.
In adolescence, the men were placed into three categories –– 44% of participants had poor diet quality, 40% had declining diet quality and 16% had improving diet quality. The follow-up study accounted for sociodemographic factors, their child’s diet, their own diet, and how they managed their children’s access to unhealthy foods.
The results suggested that the 16% of participants who improved their diet quality in adolescence were 90% more likely to model healthy eating habits as fathers, while 60% were more likely to keep a close eye on their children’s eating habits, compared to the 44% who demonstrated poor diets early in life.
Similarly, the fathers who improved their diet quality raised children who were “significantly more likely” to eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, as opposed to those children whose fathers maintained a poor or declining diet quality in their youth.
“Healthy eating habits formed during adolescence not only benefit individuals but also shape future parenting behaviors, contributing to better nutrition for the next generation,” said De Oliveira. “This is especially significant given the growing concerns around childhood obesity and poor dietary habits. Investing in adolescent nutrition, including for boys, can have lasting, intergenerational benefits.”
Limitations of the study included a disproportionately white and well-educated participant pool, meaning the findings may not hold true across other demographic groups. Additionally, the study focused only on fathers and did not account for a mother’s early dietary habits, and how that might influence their children.
