CHICAGO — A study found that mothers of young children were heavier and ate more calories, sugary drinks, and fatty foods than childless women. Parents in the study were less active than their peers without children.
Quick, easily prepared foods are often high in fat and calories. Parents who choose these foods may end up serving them to their children, perpetuating a cycle of unhealthy eating, the study authors said. Results will be published online today in the journal Pediatrics.
“This isn’t a study about blame,’’ said a coauthor, Jerica Berge, a University of Minnesota researcher. “This is about identifying … a very high-risk time period’’ for parents that doctors should be aware of so they can offer solutions, she said.
That may include diet advice, parent-child exercise classes, or just getting parents to take walks with their children, the researchers said.
The study involved 1,520 adults aged 25 on average, including parents with children younger than 5.
Mothers ate more fatty foods and drank about seven sugary drinks weekly, versus about four among childless women. They also had an average of 2,360 calories daily, 368 calories more than women without children.
Mothers had a slightly higher average body-mass index than childless women — 27 versus 26. Healthy BMIs are in the 19-24 range.
Fathers ate about the same amount of daily calories as childless men, but fathers got less physical activity — about five hours weekly, compared to almost seven hours among childless men.