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7 Eating Habits Gained During Childhood
7 Eating Habits Gained During Childhood By Dani Koltz Prominence Health Plan Wellness Specialist By: Dani Koltz Prominence Health Plan Wellness Specialist Eating Habits Gained During Childhood This becomes a regular routine for most households and thus creates the stigma that if you have food on your plate, you must finish it, regardless of whether you are hungry. This may create a habit for your future self. Sound familiar? Or have you ever had a day when things seem to be going well, you are in a great rhythm with your eating habits, and then life happens? Perhaps, you have a long and stressful day at work and forget lunch at home, or you don’t have the greatest workout, then you find yourself reaching for a specific comfort food? moment, but those choices are not effective to help us stay on track to meet our goals. These behaviors often lead to feelings of guilt or disappointment.
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There are many eating habits we don’t recognize until we attempt to make a healthy lifestyle change. Let’s walk through some of the ways that our childhood eating habits tend to manifest into our learned behaviors as adults. As habits are addressed, we can counteract them with a healthier way to manage our relationship with food.
The habits we create at a young age tend to stick with us through adulthood, especially as it relates to eating habits. Often, when kids don’t want to eat everything on their plate, parents might say, “If you eat all your peas and carrots, we can have ice cream!” And then the children reluctantly scarf it down.
Examples of Childhood Eating Habits
1. The pressure to finish all the food on your plate. Instead, only eat until you are full, eat slowly, and chew thoroughly.
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Eating Habits | from page 15 2. Labeling foods as good vs. bad. Fast food vs. grocery bought food.
3. Food as a source of comfort when not feeling well. Having only specific “snacks” when you are sick, like soda, and thinking that helps make you feel better.
4. Celebrating with food. “Passed the exam with an A+! Let’s go get some ice cream.”
5. Using food as a method to calm down or create a distraction. “I’m sorry that you fell and scraped your leg, let’s have a popsicle to feel better.”
6. Eating quickly or sneaking food. “Hurry! Let’s eat more before Mom and Dad get home!”
7. Eating outside your regular routine. Heading over to friends’ houses and having access to food items that you might not usually have at home.
“All of the habits that you have right now—good or bad—are in your life for a reason. In some way, these behaviors provide a benefit to you, even if they are bad for you in other ways.” – James Clear, Atomic Habits
While we all have had different experiences growing up, the chances are that most of us have experienced at least one of these situations, and some of those habits can and do stick with us past childhood.
So what can we do?
How to Improve Childhood Eating Habits
Dropping old habits and creating new ones can feel like a lot of work. We don’t have to do everything at once to be successful and oftentimes just creating more awareness for ourselves is the first step! Some examples of questions you can ask yourself are: ● When does this habit occur? Identifying specific situations is an important start.
● How often does it happen?
● Where are you?
● Who are you with?
● What triggers the behavior and causes it to start?
Diving into these questions can be a great starting point. Journaling is also an effective way to spend time exploring and getting familiar with your current eating habits—the ones that
Encourage mindful eating. Coaching your children to chew each bite, as well as doing it yourself, can help with slowing down while eating. are working for you and the ones that might not be.
Once people become more aware of the habits that aren’t serving you, they can turn them into healthy habits (plus work on not repeating these tactics with your children).
How to Help Children Have Healthy Eating Habits
Think back on your own childhood and if you have children of your own, you may wonder, how can I help my children have healthy and effective eating habits? While there is no right or wrong answer or way to do things, here are some suggestions you can try as a family.
● Help guide healthy eating choices, do not force them. For example, providing a variety of fruits and veggies and allowing your children to choose what they would like to have.
● Encourage mindful eating. Coaching your children to chew each bite at least 15–20 times, as well as doing it yourself, can help with slowing down while eating.
● Keep screens away from meal and snack times. When we are distracted while eating, it can be challenging to pay attention to natural hunger cues and signs of fullness. Staying away from screens and other distractions can help your children recognize those feelings, as well as create a space for some family conversations.
● Do your best not to use food as a reward OR punishment. Instead, treat meals and any other treats in a similar fashion, such as reminding them that all foods help fuel our bodies.
● Be the example! You can teach your children how to build a balanced plate with protein, carbs, fats and some veggies by doing so yourself.
Reference: Clear, J. (2018). How to Break a Bad Habit. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://jamesclear.com/how-to-break-a-bad-habit.
