I know this is an odd question and I want to say right off that MY bad eating habits were definitely LEARNED, most of them learned AFTER I left my parents' home ... although I learned a few bad habits there (like you bake sweets when the weather is bad -- lol), most of the time we kept things in check. I'll tell you in a second why this question popped into my head. I'm wondering what you think.
I have two kids, one adopted, one bio. They are young, they live together, they've been fed the same way since they were tiny. (My adopted child came home before starting on solids), yet their eating habits are entirely different. And, I've heard similar stories about bio siblings with totally different habit. My son LOVES all fruits and veggies (as long as you don't put 'sauce' on them). He also eats cheese, starches and some meat/fish. He's MORE likely to ask for 2nds on broccoli than rice or say "can I have an apple" rather than "can I have a cookie".
My daughter on the other hand ... from a very young age, rejected lots fruit and veggie babyfood, although I repeatedly tried. She started "demanding" table food at about 8 months (I attribute that to the fact that she saw another kid -- her brother -- eating table food.) From the time she started on table food, she preferred meat and starch ... even now, her entire repetoire of fruits and veggies consists of raw carrots, raw celery, cooked brocolli, cooked cauliflower, grapes, strawberries, apples, bananas and melon. She ALWAYS wants 'more' starch or meat and if left to her own devices would eat 2 cups of plain rice for dinner and nothing else. She almost ever asks for a healthy snack -- but will ask for sweets. (And I don't give her sweet snacks all the time ... I offer alternatives, which she sometimes accepts.)
But what really made me think was something I saw yesterday. I was at my daughter's pre-school for her b-day celebration. It's a one-room school w/ mixed ages ... right now all the kids range in age from almost 3 1/2 to young 6's. We brought small cookies (animal cracker size) and each child was instructed to 'take 4' ... then they are supposed to sit with them on their plate and wait until all the kids are served and the birthday-child takes the first bite. This is the 5th b-day celebration I've been to there and most kids don't have problems following these rules ... they happen EVERY TIME there's a b-day celebration and at lunch they don't eat until all are seated. BUT... One plump little boy who has thin parents (but I never knew them prior to school , so I don't know their backgrounds) 'accidentally' took 5 cookies by putting 2 right on top of each other so if you weren't right next to him, it looked like 1. Another overweight child, ate one of his cookies while he was waiting ... (and somebody squealed on him and he was gently reminded that he shouldn't have done that). I mean, kids will be kids, and I wasn't bothered by this ... but it got me wondering if these kids didn't become overweight because of something inherent in their personalities ... do you know what I mean?
What do you think?