Growing awareness ofthe importance of healthy diet in early childhood makes it important to chartthe development of children\u27s understanding of food and drink. This study aimed to document youngchildren\u27s evaluation of food and drink as healthy, and to explorerelationships with socioeconomic status, family eating habits, and children\u27stelevision viewing. Data weregathered from children aged 3 to 5 years (n = 172) indiverse socioeconomic settings in Ireland, and from their parents. Resultsdemonstrated that children had very high levels of ability to identify healthyfoods as important for growth and health, but considerably less ability toreject unhealthy items, although knowledge of these increased significantlybetween ages 3 and 5. Awareness ofwhich foods were healthy, and which foods were not, was not related to familysocioeconomic status, parent or child home eating habits, or children\u27stelevision viewing. Results highlighted the importance of examining youngchildren\u27s response patterns, as many of the youngest showed a consistent \u27yesbias\u27; however, after excluding these responses, the significant findingsremained. Findings suggest it is important to teach children about less healthyfoods in the preschool years.
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