People appear to be eating better as adults than they did as children, including consuming twice the amount of fruits and vegetables and less fat and sugar, according to a research study at Newcastle University’s Human Nutrition Research Centre.

The study involved 200 subjects in the United Kingdom who, as children ages 11 to 12, kept detailed food diaries and answered questions about their diets. Twenty years later, those same subjects again turned over food journals and answers pertaining to diet.

Researchers noted that good nutrition is largely a matter of individual coping mechanisms and attitude. “A lack of time is not necessarily the reason for people not attempting to eat healthily,” says study author Amelia Lake. “Some working adults are inspired to make a healthy meal in the evenings, while somebody with the same amount of time on their hands would feel under pressure and be inclined to send out for takeaway.”