Disliking the way something tastes is not the same as refusing to eat it. Still, parents often see it as such. Photo Shutterstock. ‘No dessert until you finish everything on your plate.’ Ring a bell? Dinner table conversations reveal our views on what we consider healthy and tasty and how we discuss food. That could help us to better attune our healthy nutrition policy to the target group. Amy van der Heijden had families record videos of their evening dinners.
Much nutrition research is conducted among well-educated or wealthy people, while those in a disadvantaged socio-economic position have a relatively unhealthy diet and are more frequently overweight, which negatively impacts their health. The difference originates during childhood. ‘So, there is much to be gained within this target group,’ says Amy van der Heijden, a researcher at the Strategic Communication Group and the Human Nutrition and Health group. In her dissertation, she focused on this group. ‘We do not know what they consider tasteful, healthy or good food and how they discuss these topics in their daily lives.’
At the table
Van der Heijden asked families in disadvantaged socio-economic positions to record ten evening meals on video. She did not join the dinners. ‘We wanted a situation as natural as possible without having a researcher sit in.’ She obtained 79 videos of family meals.
In her analysis, she focused on the small talk at the table. She observed the reactions of the parents to the children’s ‘food evaluations’: liking or disliking the food. The parents barely discussed what constitutes (un)healthy food and did not discuss the child’s preference at all. ‘If a child reported he liked the taste of the food, there was almost no reaction at all,’ the researcher states. However, if a child said he did not like the food, the parents would respond with, for example, ‘but you must eat it anyway’. Van der Heijden: ‘They perceive it as a refusal to eat, but that is not what the child is saying.’ Alternatively, the parents failed to take the child’s comment seriously.
Dilemmas
A surprising result is that both the children and the parents subconsciously consider healthy food important and tasty. This was revealed through implicit association tests in which Van der Heijden studied their appreciation for healthy food. In these tests, there was no option to provide a socially acceptable answer. Why do they not act accordingly? ‘Other issues are also important; people face contradicting values’, says the researcher. ‘Parents say they have insufficient time to cook or lack the financial means to eat healthy meals. Sometimes, allowing an unhealthy snack is also a way to compensate for all the things that are denied, due to lack of money, for example.’
Invitation
Nutrition experts and policymakers may use Van der Heijden’s insights to design interventions that are better suited for this target group. ‘A guideline such as “eat 250 grammes of vegetables a day” can easily be applied in our daily lives.’ Moreover, parents could be offered dialogue training. ‘If a child says he likes or dislikes the taste of something, you can perceive this as an invitation to discuss what constitutes healthy or tasteful food. For example, by asking the child what they would like to eat next time.’
