It is common, when discussing the factors that influence eating habits, to include genetic, sociocultural, historical, geographical, environmental, and other factors. We generally think of environmental factors as a set of subjective characteristics that influence how children's eating habits are formed: from the way they eat within their family nucleus or who is present when the child consumes food, to the eating customs of that family, and the availability or access to certain foods. These are the most obvious ways in which eating habits are thought about and constructed.
However, within this broad classification of "environmental factors," there is usually a set of behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and variables that, in some cases, are indirect and therefore difficult to measure under experimental conditions to understand how they significantly influence the development of eating habits in children.
For example, it is known that the presence of other people during meals influences what children eat. But beyond this presence, there are other attitudes that are difficult to measure in certain contexts, such as the emotional state of adults during meals and the associations children may make with eating occasions. It is also known that some topics of conversation at the table can shape a healthy relationship with food; however, much remains to be investigated about the immediate effect of certain conversations on what children eat.
There are other indirect factors that have also been studied with promising results. For instance, it is known that reading to children from infancy stimulates language development. Besides this significant aid for development, reading books with food-related themes and discussing how to nourish the body healthily could impact a child's habits, their relationship with food, and their motivation for physical activity. However, it is unclear whether these themes themselves help promote habits, or if parents who read to their children are generally more concerned about their children's development, including what they eat to shape their eating habits.
It is also known that the presence of distractions during meals can determine what is eaten. Additionally, it is recommended that screen use be avoided until after two years of age. Today, we also know that old-fashioned negotiations, where a child was urged to eat in exchange for a reward, or given distractions like the "airplane" game, are not recommended for fostering good eating habits. The same applies to tactics that force a child to eat when they are not hungry.
Nevertheless, there is a variety of behaviors that we continuously exhibit during meals and around food, which undoubtedly influence the way we think about and eat food. These behaviors are difficult to measure in an experimental model, but individual and collective experiences clearly determine how we relate to food.
— This article was originally published in Spanish by Liliana Martínez Lomelí. Translation generated with AI from the original text.
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