Study finds less fat eaten in kid-free homes

DES MOINES, Iowa – Adults living with children tend to eat more fat than grown-ups in kid-free homes, consuming as much additional saturated fat each week as found in an individual-size pizza, a new study suggests.

Household cupboards are more likely to be stocked with high-fat convenience foods like cookies, cheese, peanuts and processed meats when children are around, the researchers said.

“These dietary choices may be due to time pressures, advertising aimed at children that also includes adults, or adults’ perception that children will eat only hot dogs or macaroni and cheese,” said study author Dr. Helena Laroche, who works in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Iowa College of Medicine.

Laroche cautioned that the report “doesn’t prove that the presence of children causes adults to eat more fat,” but shows that people living with children may have different eating habits for many reasons.

Laroche and University of Michigan researchers examined data from the government’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The researchers scoured detailed questionnaires given to 6,600 adults living with and without children under age 17. The survey reviewed what the adults ate over a 24-hour period.

Adults living with children ate almost 5 more grams of fat each day, for a total of more than 91 grams, compared with 86.5 grams for adults not living with children, according to the study. That included nearly 2 grams more of saturated fat daily, the kind linked to heart disease, or about 12 grams of saturated fat per week – an amount equal to a 6-inch, personal-size pepperoni pizza.

An adult eating a 2,000-calorie diet should consume less than 65 grams of total fat a day, including less than 20 grams of saturated fat, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.