Promoting healthy eating for children A planning guide for practitioners

University reviewed the published literature on evaluated healthy eating interventions among children aged 0–15 years. From stakeholders involved in promoting children's healthy eating, the study team sought opinions on problems and opportunities in this area. This planning guide is based on the study findings and a broad reading of the area. It is intended to help health, education, and community practitioners and other child carers devise and evaluate interventions to help children and their families consume healthy foods. The guide attempts to overcome a gap in literature on children's healthy eating interventions, with the current literature being diffuse and focused mainly on children in primary schools. Relatively little research has been published on interventions in preschools and family and community settings. 1 Introduction The foods that we eat are important to our long term health and well being. This link is particularly so for children, given the impact of nutrition on healthy growth and development. However, despite widespread community awareness of the importance of healthy eating, recent surveys have shown that many children have poor eating habits. Healthy eating in childhood is important for of the following reasons: Eating a healthy diet is the cornerstone of optimal growth and development for infants, children and adolescents. A nutritious diet allows children to reach their maximal Consumption of a wide variety of foods during childhood is likely to establish food preferences that will last into adulthood—'educated palates' (Birch and Marlin 1982). The food preferences of many 70 and 80 year olds, for example, tend to resemble the foods that were widely available during their childhood (Horwath 1989). It can be more difficult to influence food preferences later in life. Much social support and roughly four to six weeks are needed to alter taste preferences during adulthood (Tuorila 1987). Basic knowledge of foods and normal eating (so-called 'food and nutrition schema') is 1986). Examples are the belief that it is good to eat two or three pieces of fruit each day, and the belief that confectionery should be eaten only occasionally. Maternal and childhood eating habits can have an impact on adult health. Children who consume large quantities of energy dense foods, for example, are likely to become overweight and obese, especially if they are sedentary (Booth et al. 2001). In turn, obese children have a greater chance of being obese as adults and suffering from associated disease conditions such as type 2 …