“More Than Buying Extra Fruits and Veggies, Please Hide the Fats and Sugars”: Children’s Diet Latent Profiles and Family-Related Factors

Abstract

Promoting children’s healthy diets is a key public health priority. Family can play a relevant role in children’s eating patterns. The goals of the current research were to identify different latent diet profiles in children based on their food consumption and to assess the relationship between profiles and family-related factors. A total of 678 school-aged children from the fifth and sixth grades participated. The study design was cross-sectional and questionnaire based. Research assessed healthy (fruit and vegetables) and unhealthy (fast food, sugar-sweetened beverages, and candies) food consumption and family-related factors. A latent profile analysis and multivariate data analysis were developed. Four diet profiles were identified: Combined Diet, Mainly Healthy Diet, Mainly Unhealthy Diet, and Very Unhealthy Diet. Nearly half of the children (45.22%) showed a Combined Diet profile, meaning that they reported eating nearly the same amount of healthy and unhealthy types of foods. Associations between the diet profiles, family income, and food availability were found. For example, the Mainly Healthy Diet profile was statistically associated with a higher family income and less access to unhealthy foods. The present study reinforces the idea that profiling diets can allow for a tailored healthy eating intervention model according to the specific needs of each diet profile.

Food Availability, Motivational-Related Factors, and Food Consumption: A Path Model Study with Children

“…Girls in the present sample reported more self-regulation behaviors than boys, which in turn may lead to girls consuming more healthy foods and less unhealthy ones than boys. These data help in understanding the mechanisms underlying the gender differences regarding food consumption found in previous studies [ 5 , 7 ].…”

“…To assess food availability at home, a checklist comprised of eight food groups was used [ 5 ]. The checklist consisted of eight images (i.e., cereals, derivatives, and tubers; vegetables; fruits; legumes; dairy products; meat, fish, and eggs; candies and soda; fats and fast food), and children were asked to circle the groups of foods they had available at home.…”

“…In this model, the gender variable was included as a covariate in order to statistically control its effect on the explanation of the variability of the dependent variables (i.e., SR, healthy and unhealthy eating). In fact, the literature shows that girls use more SR strategies than boys and that boys eat unhealthier than girls, regarding the amount of fruit and vegetable intake [ 5 , 7 , 39 ]. Model fit was evaluated using χ 2 , χ 2 /df, the adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI), the comparative fit index (CFI), the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA), and the standardized root-mean-square residual (SRMR).…”

“…To help achieve this public health goal, international organizations have been establishing eating guidelines for children, advocating the intake of five pieces of fruits and vegetables (F/V) per day and the limitation of fat and sugar consumption [ 1 , 2 ]. However, there is extensive evidence that children are not meeting the recommendations and are instead consuming large amounts of energy-dense foods, fat, and sugar, and low amounts of F/V [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Particularly, it seems that boys have unhealthier diets when compared with girls [ 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”

“…However, there is extensive evidence that children are not meeting the recommendations and are instead consuming large amounts of energy-dense foods, fat, and sugar, and low amounts of F/V [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Particularly, it seems that boys have unhealthier diets when compared with girls [ 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”