Healthy plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and legumes are the foundation of a healthy diet for anyone, no matter how old they are. But that's especially true in children, for whom these foods are rich in essential nutrients that support normal growth, learning, mood, and long-term health.
In a new global analysis of childhood diets over nearly 30 years, researchers at Tufts University find that children around the world are still consuming low amounts of these critical foods. Among their observations, in the United States, daily consumption of healthy plant-based foods decreased with age, going from among the highest in the world at an early age to among the lowest in later childhood and adolescence—a pattern that contrasts with most other countries.
"Dietary habits established during childhood can influence health throughout life, yet we found that consumption of healthy plant-based foods remains low among youth across the globe," said first author Sydney Yearley , a student in the Tufts MD/PhD Clinical & Translational Science program. "These findings provide an important benchmark for tracking progress and identifying opportunities to improve access to nutritious foods for children and adolescents."
In the study , published in BMJ Global Health, researchers analyzed dietary data from the Global Dietary Database , a large comprehensive compilation of what people around the world eat or drink. Using a large statistical model incorporating data from more than 1,200 dietary surveys from 185 countries, the researchers analyzed consumption trends of five healthful plant-based foods between 1990 and 2018. Researchers looked specifically at how much fruit, non-starchy vegetables, starchy vegetables (excluding potatoes), beans and legumes, and nuts and seeds children and adolescents from birth to 19 years of age consumed. The study provided estimates of intake at the global, regional, and national levels, including differences by sex, household education, and urban or rural residence.
They found that globally children and adolescents are eating relatively low amounts of plant-based foods, from 1.19 servings/day in children under age one to 3.55 servings/day in 15-19-year-olds, with little variation by sex. The rates were estimated to be lowest in South Asia across all ages, while countries in East and Southeast Asia had some of the highest rates, across many age groups, mostly because children and adolescents there consumed more non-starchy vegetables. They also found that intake of these important foods increased with age in all regions except in high income countries. On a per-country level, rates were highest in Vietnam, Congo, and Mexico; and lowest in Spain, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. From 1990 to 2018, total intake of healthy plant-based foods increased globally and in all regions except South Asia.
Notably, the analysis showed that children in the United States consumed among the highest amounts of healthy plant-based foods during infancy but among the lowest by later childhood and adolescence. Children younger than age two consumed 2.7 servings/day, whereas youth ages 2–19 consumed just 1.8 servings/day. The researchers say this decline suggests that while American families successfully establish healthy eating habits early in life, maintaining those habits throughout childhood and adolescence remains a challenge.
The researchers also found that only in high-income countries did consumption of healthful plant-based foods decrease with age, which they say may suggest that factors such as youth autonomy, food environments, or cultural norms may shape children's diets in these areas.
"When children don't get enough of the right foods, it hurts their bodies and minds, limiting their energy, metabolism, learning, and mood," said senior author Dariush Mozaffarian , cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. "Our findings support the importance of identifying gaps and advancing solutions to advance the consumption of minimally processed, healthy plant-foods for children globally."
Research reported in this article was supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences under award number T32TR004417 and by the Gates Foundation. Complete information on authors, methodology and conflicts of interest is available in the published paper. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.
