“You are what you eat” is a common phrase, paraded in everyday life and likely first heard in childhood. There is some merit to the statement, as we understand that a healthy, balanced diet can lead to better general and oral health outcomes.
However, a recent review of the literature published in Nutrition Reviews finds that research into children’s health and nutrition outcomes focuses more on the incorrect actions of parents, rather than the social conditions and resources needed to improve a child’s nutrition.
Speaking in Medical Xpress, research author Jennifer Black and contributor Georgia Middleton coined the concept of “food care,” described as the “processes of feeling concern or interest about food, or taking action to provide food necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, or protection of oneself or someone else.”
Many studies looked into children’s diets, risk factors for sub-optimal nutrition, and how parents fed their kids. However, they typically ignored important influences of the proposed food care framework. This included social and political factors, as well as the emotional, cognitive, and physical work that goes into feeding children – each is well established in other fields of social science, but largely overlooked in health research, according to the authors.
The review finds that biomedical literature typically identified the primary cause of issues as “poor parenting techniques”. It highlights that, alongside other health research areas predominantly concerned with individual responsibility, children’s food care is often researched in a de-politicised bubble within the context of a family unit.
The authors concluded that research typically showed an inability or inaction to examine meanings, social contexts, or interactions of food experiences within cultural, community, or policy environments.
This is of course key, as access to food and a relationship with nutrition is inherently based within this – on a basic level, we only know that we should eat five fruits or vegetables a day because we hear that in the world around us growing up, and therefore our dietary choices are affected by our environment.
Mothers were identified as being particularly targeted with the broad brushstrokes of supposed bad parenting. The study went on to warn against future studies making the claim that there is “no risk” in chastising parents about their food practices, given the limited evidence about the effects of such intervention.
Diet is well established as an influence on childhood oral health. Current advice from the Department of Education asks that caregivers limit free sugars, found in processed foods like jarred sauces and hams, as well as fruit juices, smoothies, and honey.
Understanding how the world around us affects the choices of parents and caregivers is vital to ensuring children receive the nutrition they need in everyday life, to build healthy futures.
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