© BDSI
Learning how to eat: An approach to developing positive eating behaviour in children and young people
In Germany an increasing number of children and young people are overweight or obese. As a result, ways of influencing the development of children’s attitudes towards food and exercise are now being discussed. Essential to this is detailed knowledge of the biological and pedagogical mechanisms that control the development of children’s eating behaviour and which offer promising and less promising approaches for educational and preventive interventions.
Genetic preference for sweetness as well as prenatal and postnatal conditioning
The preference of children for sweet foods is genetically fixed. As early as pregnancy (prenatal) the mother’s eating habits condition the child’s later preferences. This conditioning process continues after birth (postnatal). Mother’s milk is much more varied than bottle milk when it comes to taste. This is why later rejection of new foods (neophobia) is less marked in breast-fed children.
Evolutionary-biological programs
Newborns learn to taste what is offered to them and then, over time, they will begin to like these tastes too (mere exposure effect). This is counteracted by another evolutionary-biological strategy, sensory-specific satiety, which creates an increasing aversion to constantly repeated taste qualities. Aversions can also be the result of an unpleasant experience directly connected to the consumption of the corresponding food.
Control of eating behaviour by internal and external stimuli
The necessary primary needs for food consumption in the first months of life such as hunger, thirst and satiety are replaced with increasing age by so-called secondary needs linked to eating and drinking. These are acquired over a long, sociocultural learning process. These include, for example, the use of foods at various (meal)times, in particular combinations, on particular occasions etc. In later years, attitudes and experiences are increasingly important when it comes to the choice of food types and quantities.
Learning processes and education
In every eating culture, a lifelong educational process takes place, beginning at birth, which dictates preferences for certain foods and dishes, and which is essentially controlled through learning processes and habit-forming experiences. Children learn to eat in the social context of the food culture into which they were born. Among the most important principles of learning for children is imitation learning and learning through positive reinforcement, i.e. through directly experienceable positive consequences of behaviour. Furthermore, the behaviour of children is determined much more strongly by immediate consequences (e.g. enjoyment and taste) than by long-term, unspecific consequences (e.g. “That will make you fat!”). Rational, sensible instructions and restrictions in the family and social communication can result in exactly the opposite of the desired effect. Parents and carers can create preferences in children particularly well if they restrict particular foods with clever words, or can pave the way for aversions to develop if they demand the consumption of particular foods using health arguments. Probably the most effective method is by providing a positive example for children around the
central themes of enjoyment and taste.
Television advertising for foods is discussed as a factor impacting on the eating habits of children and on the development of obesity. According to studies, television adverts for foods play a secondary role in weight gain. Watching television primarily promotes weight gain due to the extended periods the child spends sitting, inactive, in front of the TV. As far as possible children should not be allowed to eat and drink in front of the television, since the strong distraction leads to a significant decrease in self-awareness when eating and thus satiety signals are not sufficiently perceived.
With a view to the onset of diet behaviour in young people, flexible control strategies are, in contrast to rigid ones, important. Many young people – girls in particular – no longer eat until satiety, but will deliberately stop eating to comply with strict, self-imposed diet limits. This, in turn, cannot be maintained for long periods as a consequence of outside interference and easily leads to counterregulations. The better variant, that is adapted to an environment of abundance, is flexible control, with the planned inclusion of enjoyable, energy-richer foods from the outset. This prevents the onset of binge eating attacks
and disorders.
PD Dr. Thomas Ellrott, Göttingen
Translation of the original paper (German): Kevin Christian
