I.Family project was created to explore how European youth develop dietary habits. The project considered everything from existing diets and physical activity to environmental effects and consumer habits to understand how these factors came together to form dietary habits in European youth.
Partners of the project determined how teenagers formed habits, learning that teen’s habits were more similar to their friends than their family. Other partners looked at the effects of these habits and found that watching TV during meals lead to children being overweight. When I.Family combined their research they discovered that watching commercial TV increased children’s sugar consumption, despite the habits of their parents.
At the final I.Family conference, February 9, 2017, project partners reported their findings to MEP’s, commissioners, and key members of national governments. Findings ran from the unique knowledge that teens tend to be more similar to mothers than fathers in body type and dietary habits to the conclusion that changing the habits of Europe’s youth is beyond the scope of individual family and thus requires government intervention.
The I.Family project has been funded by the European Commission to research and report “why young people in Europe eat the way they do and how this influences lifelong health”.