Junk food linked to father's education, income?

Aligarh, July 26: The next time you see children gorging on junk food, don't blame the mothers. Instead, blame the father's education and high income.

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.

The authors say that 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 pointed out that paternal factors play a big role in adolescents' health outcomes.

He added that 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.