Healthy eating habits should begin at home

IT was interesting to read that parents are doing their best to change the dietary habits of their children (Irish Examiner, March 31). One of the main determinants of our health is “individual lifestyle factors” which involves eating healthily.

It’s crucial that this determinant of health is catered for in people’s lives in order for them to live disease free for a long proportion of their lives.

The diets people eat, in all their cultural variety, define to a large extent people’s health, growth and development. Studies have shown that there is considerable evidence that young children exposed to poor nutrition have poorer development than adequately nourished children both concurrently and in later children. Intrauterine growth retardation, failure to breast feed, early childhood stunting and wasting are just some of the conditions associated with poor nutrition at a young age.