Recently I wrote about how the lack of home-cooked meals has led to bad food choices for families. Now comes a study from The Institute of Child Health in the UK that found families with working mothers tended to more often have unfit children.
The study examined more than 12,500 five-year-olds and found that those who had working mothers were less active and more likely to eat unhealthy food.
An estimated 60 percent of UK mothers with children up to five-years old work. Those children whose mothers were employed, even part-time, were more likely to consume sweetened drinks between meals.
The children of working mothers were also more likely to be driven to school, as opposed to the children of stay-at-home mothers who usually walked or biked to school.
“Time constraints may limit parents’ capacity to provide their children with healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity,” says Catherine Law, who led the study. “Our results do not imply that mothers should not work. Rather, they highlight the need for policies and programs to help support parents.”
As is usually the case, some experts say that more studies are needed to reassure the findings by the The Institute of Child Health.
(via: BBC)