Preschoolers Eating Habits Show Kids Consume the Same Amount of Healthy & Junk Food: Study

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There is an assumption that children who eat healthy earlier in life can develop good eating habits as they grow and veer away from junk food such as candy and fries. However, new research from the Ohio State University proved otherwise.

EurekAlert reported that a new study shows how preschoolers from low-income neighborhoods in Columbus who consumed fruits and vegetables and drank milk several times in a day were just as likely to eat foods containing high sugar, salt and fat levels as their counterparts who ate healthy foods.

For the study, trained researchers asked parents or guardians of 357 children aged two to five years old, to recall how often the children ate certain foods in the last seven days. Among the children, 60% were black and almost all were Medicaid recipients. More than have were not in child care, a higher percentage than in the general American population, researchers noted.

Researchers asked about the kids' diets and categorized foods and drinks into healthy and unhealthy categories. Healthy foods included fruits, vegetables and milk, while unhealthy choices were sweetened drinks, fast food, sweets and salty snacks. Results had shown that there was no evidence to show that children who frequently ate fruits and vegetables and drank milk were any less likely to eat unhealthy food.

According to the Ohio State University News Room, associate professor and study lead author Sarah Anderson said: "We assumed that children who ate a lot of healthy foods would also be children who did not eat a lot of unhealthy foods. I just thought that was the way the world was and it turned out not to be the case."

The study was published in the December issue of "Maternal and Child Health Journal" and a larger scale study is now underway.

"This suggests that we have to have two conversations," co-author Phyllis Pirie, professor of health behavior and health promotion at Ohio State, commented. "There has been a kind of assumption there that if you encourage people to adopt healthy eating that it naturally leads to a decline in unhealthy eating."

Meanwhile, Yahoo! News reported that, thanks to the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2012, school meals now contain higher levels of calcium, vitamin C, vitamin A, iron, fiber and protein. However, it is yet to be determined whether or not these school lunches are truly being consumed by students, or are ending up in the trash.

Last August, a study found that the percentage of children choosing fruits and vegetables increased from 84.3% to 97.5%. If this is any indication, the move towards healthier eating is working and hopefully continues to improve in the coming years.