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Gene-Environment Interplay in Child Eating Behaviors: What the Role of “Nature” Means for the Effects of “Nurture”

  • Maternal and Childhood Nutrition (AC Wood, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This narrative review describes the evidence for both genetic and environmental influences on child appetitive traits and suggests ways of thinking about how these interact and correlate to influence how a child eats.

Recent Findings

Emerging evidence from social network analysis, and from longitudinal studies questioning the direction of association between parent feeding behaviors and child obesity risk, suggest that children’s genes may shape the environmental risk for obesity that they are exposed to.

Summary

There is strong evidence that child appetitive traits are both heritable and shaped by the environment. Instead of thinking about how genetic and environmental factors operate independently on each appetitive trait, research needs to expand the current paradigm to examine how genes and environments interact and shape each other.

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  1. USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 1100 Bates Street, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Alexis C. Wood

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Wood, A.C. Gene-Environment Interplay in Child Eating Behaviors: What the Role of “Nature” Means for the Effects of “Nurture”. Curr Nutr Rep 7, 294–302 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-018-0254-x

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