All teenagers consume energy drinks and pink cakes: how important are (healthy) eating habits in the family?

Green beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts. For years, as a parent you have done your best to create a vegetable monster out of your child, only to watch helplessly as your teenager buys energy drinks and greasy snacks outside the home. Has it all been for nothing? Or do eating habits in childhood actually lay a blueprint for later?

This is what the experts think

“How someone eats is fairly stable over a lifetime,” says Junilla Larsen, associate professor at Radboud University and author of the book Eating behavior in balance. ‘The general scientific consensus is that our eating behavior is determined by the interaction between genes and the environment.’

Some children are genetically at greater risk of being overweight. They are naturally less likely to feel full and respond more strongly to food. But the social environment and upbringing also play a role.

This is also evident from a large study among thousands of European children and their parents. Children of parents with a practical education showed an increased risk of obesity with a higher genetic susceptibility than children with theoretically educated parents. “They probably ate unhealthy food more often,” Larsen said. ‘It is also said: genes load the gun, but it is the environment that pulls the trigger.’

‘A healthy eating upbringing leads to the development of more self-regulation, and that is important,’ says Larsen. ‘Your teenager may buy pink cakes, but he doesn’t go all out.’

The Health Survey of Statistics Netherlands (2022) shows that older children (12-16 years) eat less healthily than young children. About 31 percent eat fruit five days a week and 24.5 percent eat enough vegetables every day.

“Under peer pressure, they go to the supermarket during the school break to buy a frikandel sandwich and energy drink,” says Liesbeth Velema, nutrition and behavior expert at the Nutrition Center. ‘Interviews with teenagers show that they have little interest in healthy food. They don’t see the need for it. That only comes later, when they start exercising more and appearance becomes more important.’

Interestingly, teens say they trust what they get at home is healthy. ‘Parents also have a greater influence in the difficult adolescent phase than they think.’

How do you approach it?

Eating is habitual behavior. “If you create healthy eating routines as a family, children will benefit from this later,” says Velema. This includes: fixed eating and drinking moments during the day. Always eat at the table, not in front of the television. Clear rules about sweets. Continue to offer new flavors. Always vegetables with meals. “You don’t have to keep emphasizing that fruit and vegetables are healthy,” says the nutrition expert. ‘They get that message implicitly if you present it to them every day.’

“I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on weight,” Larsen tips. So don’t: all those cookies will make you fat. ‘You can tell why it is important to eat fruit and vegetables.’

Use arguments that are age-appropriate. ‘We know from research into smoking and alcohol that children are not sensitive to long-term benefits. Show what they achieve in the short term. For young children this could be: vegetables make you strong and then you can cycle without training wheels.’ Rewarding with stickers can also help, just like with toilet training.

At my house we have the rule: you don’t have to eat it, but you do have to taste it. Because we insist on this endlessly, the children always dare to try unfamiliar foods, from oysters to chicory, precisely because there is no pressure. Often it doesn’t turn out so bad.

Not in the case of the oysters. “Yuck, a bite of sea,” said my 6-year-old son. And he may have a point there.