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Review
. 2018 Dec;7(4):294-302.
doi: 10.1007/s13668-018-0254-x.

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

Alexis C Wood  1
Affiliations
Review

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

Alexis C Wood. Curr Nutr Rep. 2018 Dec.

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. 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.

Keywords: BMI; Child; Dynamic genetics; Eating behaviors; Environment; FTO; Gene-by-environment correlation; Gene-by-environment interaction; Genes; Heritability; Molecular genetics; Nature; Nurture; Obesity; Obesogenic environment; Parenting; Pediatrics; Review; Twin study.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

Alexis C. Wood declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Heritability estimates of Child Appetitive Traits by Age
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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MeSH terms