Unhealthy Food Habits Your Parents Taught You! And What You Might be Teaching Your Children!

Recently while reading a medical journal i came across some alarming figures that showed just how young some people are when they first begin to develop unhealthy relationship with food. A study conducted in America highlighted that one in four children begin a diet before the age of 7 while also reporting that 80 percent of 10-year-old girls said they had dieted. Though there are many different variables that affect a person’s habits and attitudes toward food (including genetics), parents and guardians are predominately a child's major influence and where most habits are learnt. This article aims to provide some key information surrounding eating habits in the home in a bid to create a healthier eating culture for children and adults alike.

Forcing You to Eat at a Certain Time or a Certain Amount

Parents will sometimes force their children to eat at a certain time or finish all the food on their plates which is one of the worst habits a child can learn in regards to food. When we force children to eat everything on their plate even when they are not hungry we teach children to dismiss their bodies hunger cues setting them up for overeating and range of possible health conditions in the future. Parents and guardian need to understand that children may not be hungry, and they may not want to eat all the food on their plate, and that’s fine. Children need to learn to recognise what it feels like to be hungry and full and then eat based on how they feel.

Try making dinner food available only at dinnertime, but having other foods (such as apples and yogurt) available in case your child gets hungry later on. This strategy teaches children how to make their own choices surrounding food, while also allowing them to learn the limits and bounds of choice.

Using Food as a Reward or Punishment

When a child accomplishes something, such as getting a school award or winning their rugby match, it might be tempting to take them out for ice cream or a happy meal. However psychiatrist reports state that developing a reward or punishment system around food can foster an emotional relationship with eating. instead you should put more value on spending time together, talking to your children, letting them know with words and affection and quality time how much you care about them more so than them getting that need met through consuming a particular food item.

While it’s totally OK to treat yourself or your child to food as a reward once in a while, try expanding your idea of what a reward can be. Some examples of nonfood-related rewards include going to the park, having a friend over or going to the movies.

Banning or Restricting Foods

Common sense would tell you that cutting soft drinks and other sugary and fatty foods from a child’s diet is a good thing right? Wrong, recent physiological studies have shown that this can actually be damaging to a child’s health in the long run. It is human nature to crave something as soon as you feel deprived of it, so when you restrict a certain food from a diet you will begin to crave that food and eat too much of when you get it. This kind of behaviors often results in a pattern of binging or being overly conscious about what you are eating. Instead, parents should create a healthy balance of food in their pantry, including both nutrient-dense foods and treats. If children occasionally want treats, let them have treats, jyst be sure It’s all about moderation.

Teaching Good Foods Vs. Bad Foods

Similar to banning or restricting foods, teaching children that there are certain foods that are “bad” can affect their desire surrounding that food in the long run. There really shouldn’t be a positive or negative balance to any food. All foods fit into a healthy diet.

We can have all sorts of food in the house. We can eat those foods in moderation and in a way that is going to help us fuel our lives and is meant to be enjoyed.

Promoting Diet-Positive Language

Even if a parent isn’t explicitly telling a child to diet, a parent's own self-talk about weight and dieting, can directly impact a child’s behavior.

Most 9-year-olds aren’t being told by their parents that they need to go on diets, they’re hearing their mum, father, aunt, unlce say, ‘Oh, I’ve gained so much weight, I need to do go on a diet,’”. In a childs mind they are thinking "My mum’s going on a diet, so that’s the thing that I want to do.’”

Using diet-positive language around children can distort their view of how to achieve happiness, teaching them that being thin or always eating nutritious foods will automatically make them happy — which isn’t the case.

Not Eating Together as a Family

Whether in the car, at their desks or on the go, people are eating alone now more than ever. In fact, according to a 2015 report from the Food Marketing Association, more than half of all meals and snacks are eaten solo. This solo eating means that families are missing opportunities to connect and teach children about mindfulness around food. If families at least have one home-cooked meal together once a week, that is tremendously important for the health of the family as its a time for everybody to really connect and talk and share about their day and what’s been going on in their week. This connection is really important for the health of the family.

Not Unplugging During Meals

If you tend to check your phone during meals, or have the TV on while your eating, your not alone. Instead of trying to be in the moment,rather than placing value on how many things they can get done at once. These days it seems using that food is used as a distraction instead of the main event, which creates an opening for a lot of anxiety, depression and feelings of disconnectedness.

Instead, parents should ask their children to put their phones away and turn off the TV during meals. Staying present while eating is a way of paying respect to yourself and your life and staying connected in that way.

Not Providing Any Guidance About Food

Being overattentive to a child's food and eating habits can lead to unhealthy eating habits down the line, but ignoring those things altogether can bring on a whole other set of problems. Society and culture will influence and educate where parents don’t, meaning that children who aren't being taught how to eat in a balanced way by their parents will look to the media, their friends, or what's available at school for guidance. That could mean anything from getting their lunch out of a vending machine to skipping lunch altogether. What's more, not taking the time to teach children about food and eating can make them feel as though they're not important. Not being concerned at all is sending a lot of messages to your kid as well, that either parents don’t know or they don’t care enough about them to give them rules.

Focusing Too Much on Willpower

The media gives us unrealistic expectations about our bodies; many parents often enforce those expectations by being overly controlling of the kinds of foods we eat.

There’s a message "that in order to be attractive, happy, successful, worthwhile, then you have to be thin,” along with the message that "Anyone can be thin with enough willpower". And that’s actually not accurate information. While we do have some control over our weight, our body shapes and sizes are actually largely driven by genetics.

Not Teaching You How to Regulate Your Emotions

One of the biggest things that can cause people to develop an unhealthy relationship with food, is not being taught as children how to regulate their emotions in healthy ways. So then [children] do that with food or with other kinds of food behaviors, whether that means eating a pint of ice cream because you had a bad day or eating a ton of pizza because you're nervous before test. It's important for parents to model appropriate ways to deal with tough emotions that don’t involve food, such as writing, playing with friends, getting outdoors.

Should We Blame Our Parents?

If we know that our parents might have contributed to an unhealthy relationship with eating or food, should we blame them? The short answer is no. If you spend so much time blaming someone else, that doesn’t exactly give you the ability to take responsibility for the parts of it that you can change or for what’s happening in the present moment.

What’s important is acknowledgement on the parent’s part, forgiveness on the child’s part and then both of them working to make whatever changes they can.

How Conscious Eating Can Help You Overcome Emotional Eating

Eating disorders are complex and can be difficult to treat, so people who are suffering from eating disorders like bulimia, anorexia or binge eating should seek help from their family doctor, a dietitian or a psychologist. But for people who simply want to learn how to have a healthier relationship with food, consider conscious eating. Whereas mindful eating involves listening to your body’s cues and eating only when you’re actually hungry, conscious eating has more to do with making purposeful choices that sometimes have nothing to do with your physiological needs. Sometimes you might be full and not need to eat the birthday cake but you’re being conscious of the fact that you are going to eat birthday cake anyway because it’s your friend’s birthday and you want to celebrate. Making conscious decisions around food, rather than being blindly guided by your emotions, can help you to avoid the guilt and shame that’s often associated with disordered eating.

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