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<\/a><\/p>\nThe findings underscore an urgent need to improve accessibility to nutritious foods while highlighting the impact of dietary habits on lifelong health. Nutrition Insight speaks with the study\u2019s first author to learn more.<\/p>\n
How early life shapes diets<\/p>\n
The study in BMJ Global Health\u00a0<\/a>points out that the US had a sharp decline in plant-based intake from infancy to adolescence, while most other countries see intake rise with age.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although the study cannot explain the exact reason for this trend, Sydney Yearley, M.D.\/Ph.D. a student at Tufts University, notes that the pattern tells an important story.<\/p>\n \u201cEarly in life, children mostly eat the foods their parents and caregivers provide, and many families benefit from nutrition guidance and programs that encourage healthy eating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs children grow older, they gain more independence and are increasingly surrounded by restaurants, convenience foods, advertising, and highly processed snacks. Together, these changes may make it harder to maintain the healthy eating habits established early in life.\u201d<\/p>\n Study details\u00a0<\/p>\n The researchers analyzed data from the Global Dietary Database, which compiles what people globally eat or drink, and incorporated data from 1,200 dietary surveys to study trends from 1990 to 2018.<\/p>\n They specifically looked at what children from birth up to 19 years of age ate, such as fruit, non-starchy and starchy vegetables (excluding potatoes), beans and legumes, and nuts and seeds.<\/p>\n The rates of plant-based food consumption were found to be the highest in East and Southeast Asia, mainly because children consumed more non-starchy vegetables. The rate was the lowest in South Asia.<\/p>\n Intake of plant-based foods increased as children aged, except in high-income countries, the researchers add. Top countries with high rates are Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mexico; the lowest are in Spain, Pakistan, and the UK.<\/p>\n Notably, the study reveals total intake of healthy plant-based foods increased globally except in South Asia. Also, US children consumed the highest levels of healthy plant-based foods in infancy and the lowest in childhood and adolescence.<\/p>\n Availability is not always better<\/p>\n Since plant-based intake decreases with age only in high-income countries, Yearley notes that the study findings are a reminder that having more food available does not always mean eating better.<\/p>\n \u201cIn many lower- and middle-income countries, traditional dietary patterns that include more minimally processed plant foods are often preserved as children age,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n Recent US studies compared ultra-processed food marketing strategies to tobacco<\/a> tactics, citing similarities driving consumption. For children, it targeted foods \u201cto play with,\u201d such as cartoon characters.<\/p>\n Globally, children are eating relatively low amounts of healthy plant-based foods, according to the study. Yearley believes this finding can reveal hints about some of the barriers to improving intake.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found large differences by age, education, and where children live. That tells us the challenges aren\u2019t the same everywhere. Understanding the social, cultural, economic, and food system factors within each community will be critical for designing solutions that actually work.\u201d<\/p>\n When children do not consume enough of the right foods, the study warns of impacts on their energy, metabolism, learning, and mood.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yearley points out: \u201cThe evidence is quite strong that early childhood nutrition matters. A large body of research has shown that diets consisting of fruits, vegetables, beans\/legumes, and nuts\/seeds, for example, are rich in essential nutrients and support a healthy microbiome, physical and mental development, body weight, and cardiometabolic risk profile.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe eating habits children develop early in life affect both their health today and their health decades from now.\u201d<\/p>\n Call for stronger nutrition programs<\/p>\n The study acts as a benchmark for tracking progress across countries, which urges solutions to make healthy foods more affordable, accessible, and convenient, Yearley states.<\/p>\n \u201cThis could be accomplished through stronger federal nutrition programs and policies, surveillance programs, and individual-level interventions like Food is Medicine and Produce Prescription programs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBecause the challenges differ across subpopulations, regions, and countries, the solutions should too,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n In related news, a study linked\u00a0coordinated food policies targeting products high in fat, salt, and sugar\u00a0<\/a>in Chile to a significant reduction in childhood obesity. Such policies include front-of-package warning labels, marketing restrictions, and school food regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\nHealthy eating habits formed early in life can shape long-term health and development.A recent review\u00a0<\/a>linked nutritional influences to teenage cognitive outcomes, finding that unhealthy diets in early life, especially infancy, could have lasting consequences for intelligence in adolescence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Children around the world are eating too few fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds.\u201cHigher-income countries often have greater purchasing power and food availability, but children\u2019s diets are shaped by many factors beyond access, including convenience, advertising, peer and family influence, school food environments, and cultural norms, to name a few.\u201d<\/p>\n