Key takeaways:
- Children’s eating habits may be influenced by the quality of their father’s diet when he was an adolescent.
- Early nutritional intervention from PCPs could have an intergenerational effect, a researcher said.
ORLANDO — Men’s eating habits in adolescence may offer a clue to their children’s future nutritional health, according to a presentation at the annual NUTRITION meeting.
Mariane H. De Oliveira, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Boston College, told Healio that she and her colleagues “wanted to understand whether fathers’ dietary habits before they even become parents — particularly during adolescence — could influence how they approach feeding their own children later in life.”
“This is an important subject because most preconception health research and public health messaging has focused on mothers. Yet fathers play a significant role in shaping their children’s eating environments and habits,” De Oliveira said. “Our study helps fill this gap by exploring the long-term impact of adolescent diet quality on food parenting practices and children’s nutrition.”
De Oliveira and colleagues evaluated data from 669 fathers participating in the Growing Up Today Study — 90% of whom were white and 80% of whom had at least a bachelor’s degree, which may limit the findings’ broader applicability, according to a press release. They answered questionnaires about their eating habits when they were adolescents and later offered information about their behaviors and attitudes surrounding their kids’ diets.
The researchers found that fathers who adhered to the Healthy Eating Index-2020 (HEI-2020) during adolescence were more likely to monitor and model healthy eating habits at home, meaning that they were more likely to “actively track or keep an eye on their child’s consumption of sweets and snack foods” and “demonstrate healthy eating habits by eating nutritious foods in front of their children,” De Oliveira said.
“The link we found suggests that dietary habits formed during adolescence can carry over into adulthood and influence parenting behaviors,” she added.
More specifically, those whose diet quality was better during adolescence were 60% more likely to monitor their children’s diets and 90% more likely to model healthy eating when they became fathers than those who had a poor diet in adolescence. Similarly, their children were more likely to eat the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables than the children of fathers who had poor diets as adolescents.
“Additionally, there was a borderline significant association with the food environment, indicating that these fathers also tended to create healthier home food settings by limiting the availability of unhealthy foods,” De Oliveira said. “As a result, children of fathers who increased their adherence to the HEI-2020 during adolescence were more likely to consume fruits and vegetables multiple times per day, meeting U.S. dietary guideline recommendations.”
De Oliveira said primary care providers can use the findings to inform their clinical practice.
“PCPs should recognize adolescence and young adulthood as critical periods for shaping long-term health — not just for individuals, but for their future families,” she said. “Our findings suggest that improving adherence to the HEI-2020 in young men could have intergenerational benefits. PCPs can incorporate this into anticipatory guidance and health promotion by addressing diet quality even in patients who are not yet thinking about parenthood.”
“The health behaviors of future fathers matter — long before they have children,” she continued. “Encouraging healthy dietary patterns in adolescent and young adult males is an investment not only in their own future health but also in the health and nutritional well-being of the next generation.”
De Oliveira said the study’s findings also reinforce “the importance of including fathers in public health efforts around nutrition and parenting.”
“Supporting healthy habits in young men should be part of broader strategies to promote family and child well-being,” she concluded.
For more information:
Mariane De Oliveira, PhD, can be reached at mariane.deoliveira@bc.edu.
References:
- De Oliveira M, et al. Abstract OR02-07-25. Presented at: NUTRITION; May 31-June 3, 2025; Orlando.
- Quality of kids’ diets linked with dad’s eating habits as a teen. Available at: Published May 31, 2025. Accessed June 4, 2025.
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