Food Parenting and Children’s Diet and Weight Outcome

Food parenting practices refer to food-specific, goal-oriented, discrete, and observable acts of parenting, which play an important role in the development of children's dietary behavior and Body Mass Index (BMI). During the past decade, experimental and intervention studies have improved our knowledge of the influence of food parenting practices on the development of children’s healthy dietary intake, including fruit and vegetable (F&V) intakes. However, less is known about whether and how food parenting practices influence the children’s intake of less healthy foods, including energy-dense foods and sugar-sweetened drinks and excessive weight gain and the risk of obesity. This chapter aims to summarize the recent advances in the studies of food parenting to create a clear picture of the potential targets for intervention research.