Children eating junk food linked to father's income and education?

Aligarh: If your children are hogging on junk food, then don't blame the mothers. Instead, blame the father's education and high income, a new study suggests.

This is the finding of Nafis Faizi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Medicine at the Aligarh Muslim University.

In a research paper jointly authored with Arzi Adbi, a Doctoral Student of Strategy from Singapore, and Chirantan Chatterjee, Assistant Professor, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, the paper questions the widely held view that mothers are to blame for kids' junk food.

According to the authors, junk food intake decreased with mothers' education but went up with father's educational status and income. The more wealthy and more educated fathers are, more likely they will feed children with junk food.

The research counters the argument that new-generation mothers have become lazy and so feed two-minute noodles and other junk food to children.

Faizi said that paternal factors play a big role in adolescents' health outcomes.

The findings of his research suggest that the junk food intake of adolescents show a decrease with the mother's education but increase with the father's education, he added.

(With IANS inputs)