By providing children early lessons in cooking, working parents can tackle the problem of unhealthy eating, a new study says.
In the first of its kind study, researchers from Temple University in Philadelphia examined employed parents' struggle with work and providing healthy food choices for the family, particulary their teen children. For the study, researchers interviewed about 3,709 parents. About 64 percent of fathers and 46 percent of mothers were found working.
"Our work underlined the need to take into account the competing pressures that so many families - especially those that are lower income - are experiencing," Katherine Bauer, an assistant professor of public health and researcher at Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education, said in a statement. "There's a great need to help parents find realistic and sustainable ways to feed their families more healthfully while taking into consideration all of the stresses on parents these days."
Entire members of the family working together, helping each other in preparing healthy meals is the only solution for the problem.
"We need to teach kids how to cook," Bauer said. "We know if kids have cooking skills and good eating habits, not only will they be healthier, but as adults they'll put those skills to use to feed their own children more healthfully."
Investigators noted full-time working mothers depended on many unhealthy choices and sacrificed nutritious food for their family.
Working mothers "reported fewer family meals, more frequent fast food for family meals, less frequent encouragement of their adolescents' healthful eating, lower fruit and vegetable intake and less time spent on food preparation, compared to part-time and not-employed mothers," said Bauer .
Mothers were found to spend more time on cooking compared to fathers, irrespective of the employment status. The work stress of parents reflected in the healthy eating habits. Parents with greater level of stress were noticed of taking less fruits and vegetables per day and were found skipping more family meals compared to the parents with low level of stress.
After gathering the findings, investigators warn parents about the negative effects of the unhealthy eating habits on their children's health. The study titled "Parental employment and work-family stress: Associations with family food environments" has been published online in the journal Social Science and Medicine. The findings come at a time when both parents have started working in majority of households in the United States.
Earlier studies have been successful in finding a link between employment and a lifestyle that leaves children at higher risks of obesity and disease. According to a study in 2009 reported by Daily Mail, children of working mothers were found more watching TV, eating junk food and fizzy drinks and have less nutritious food.
