Dads Help Shape Eating Habits of Their Children

June 2, 2025
Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

A dad’s eating habits can have a profound effect on their kid’s diets, even when those children are nothing but a twinkle in his eye, a new study says.

Men who established a healthy diet as teens were more likely to model healthy eating for their kids, and to keep a sharp eye on what their kids eat, researchers reported Saturday at a meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando, Fl.

“Our study found that fathers who ate healthier as teenagers were more likely to encourage positive food habits in their children,” lead author Mariane De Oliveira, a postdoctoral research fellow at Boston College, said in a news release.

“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,” she added.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 669 men who answered questionnaires about their teenage eating habits, and years later answered questions about their kids' diet.

The men, who themselves were the children of nurses, entered the study in the 1990s and 2000s and completed at least two diet questionnaires during their teen years.

They were grown up and had kids ages 1 to 6 when researchers contacted them in 2021 and 2022 to participate in a follow-up study specifically for fathers.

Researchers assessed diet quality using the Healthy Eating Index, a common tool for measuring healthy eating patterns.

Eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and lean proteins boosts the score, as does moderating intake of refined grains, sodium, added sugars and saturated fats.

As teenagers, about 44% of the men had a poor diet; 40% had declining diet quality; and 16% had a diet that got healthier as they grew through adolescence, researchers said.

Those men whose diet improved during their teen years were 90% more likely to model healthy eating as fathers, results show.

They also were 60% more likely to monitor what their kids ate, researchers said.

As a result, their children were significantly more likely to eat the recommended daily amounts of fruits and vegetables, compared to kids with dads who had unhealthy diets as teens, researchers said.

“Healthy eating habits formed during adolescence not only benefit individuals but also shape future parenting behaviors, contributing to better nutrition for the next generation,” De Oliveira said.

“This is especially significant given the growing concerns around childhood obesity and poor dietary habits,” she added. “Investing in adolescent nutrition, including for boys, can have lasting, intergenerational benefits.”

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal

More information

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has more on the Healthy Eating Index.

SOURCE: American Society for Nutrition, news release, May 31, 2025

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