| Functional foods are believed to improve overall health and well-being and reduce the risk of specific diseases. Research has examined adult awareness and consumption of functional foods. However, research on whether parental awareness and consumption of functional foods results in feeding their children functional foods is lacking. Therefore, this study's objective was to examine relationships between parental awareness and consumption of functional foods, and feeding their children functional foods. Parents of children in two school districts in Mississippi were surveyed (n=202). The section on parental awareness, consumption, and feeding their children consisted of 27 questions featuring 19 functional food components, which were categorized into 6 health benefit categories: heart health, weight health, cancer prevention, digestion health, bone health, and other health. During analysis, parental consumption of functional foods correlated with feeding all functional foods from the six health benefit categories to their children (p<.01). The only health benefit category in which parental awareness was correlated to child feeding was bone health (p<.01). Regarding relationships between consumption and feeding their children specific health benefit categories, heart health (r=.910), other health (r=.898), and cancer prevention (r=.880) had the highest, positive correlations. Findings show that parental consumption of functional foods has a larger effect on feeding children functional foods than awareness of functional foods (awareness, consumption heart beta=.076, beta=.857, digestion beta=.082, beta=.743, weight beta=.011, beta=.783, bone beta=.319, beta=.545, other beta=.027, beta=.880, cancer beta=.001, beta=.880). Dietetic practice should encourage parents to create a family food environment that promotes awareness and consumption of functional foods. |
