Children’s understanding of family financial resources and impact on healthy eating

An article examined children’s understanding of family finances and how they perceived this to relate to eating healthily. Children had sophisticated ideas about the interrelationships between diet, cost, and health; and they were acutely aware of how family finances influenced food purchase. Children proposed different strategies to facilitate eating healthily on a budget: but they prioritized state and corporate responsibility in ensuring that eating healthily was affordable. This contrasted with existing health-related policy, which did not address cost as a potential barrier to eating healthily in the home. Children also consistently conflated healthy eating with eating fruit and vegetables, highlighting a need to reinforce other important nutritional messages.