Influence of Nutritional Awareness on Grocery Shopping by Kuwaiti Parents in Relation to Children Nutrition.
Nutrition-related diseases are still increasing among children in Kuwait. Kuwaiti children are gradually getting engaged in further negative dietary habits. Caregivers, specifically parents,
have a major influence in providing either healthy or unhealthy foods to their children – thus, playing a role in shaping their children’s health. The main factor of children’s food choices is
strongly controlled by parent’s food choices. A healthy diet helps children to grow normally and learn, as well as help in preventing obesity and weight-related diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes, cancer, and anemia.
As more parents work away from home, their children’s eating patterns continue to deviate from being healthy by time and so does their health. Some working parents claim they do not have the time to prepare meals for their children on a daily basis; thus, they opt for what is ready and easy to feed them.
Previous studies showed that children’s preference and intake patterns are
largely a reflection of the foods that they have become familiar with. Therefore, caregivers’ consumption of food items is positively related to their availability at home. Parents may understand that fruits and vegetables provide vitamins and minerals that are essential for their children’s growth. Also, they may have other plant-based food items that contain nutrients that are thought to be important in reducing the risk of some diseases.
Studies on patterns of grocery shopping by Kuwaiti parents and consequences of such on their children’s nutrition are lacking. Thus, this study was of interest to assess aspects of Kuwaiti parents’ food shopping choices as influenced by demographic factors and by their level of nutritional awareness.
Adv Food Technol Nutr Sci Open J. 2020; 6(2): 60-69. doi: 10.17140/AFTNSOJ-6-170
