Originally published June 23 2005
Children can only learn healthy eating habits by good examples set by parents and adults
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to a recent article in the Salt Lake tribune, parents must set an example of how to choose and eat healthy foods if they want their kids to be healthy, and a new government campaign to teach kids about nutrition won't be effective if parents don't learn as well.
There are really only three effective ways to teach children to choose nutritious foods and avoid unhealthy ones: example, example and example.
If that advice sounds a bit hackneyed, it is because it's been around about as long as people have been trying to figure out how to encourage children to do anything that's good for them.
The most recent study on teaching children about nutrition shows that they can be taught which foods are good to eat most of the time, which ones should be eaten sparingly and which should be eaten only on special occasions.
That probably wouldn't surprise our grandparents, who also knew what the researchers didn't come right out and say, but implied: Children learn best from the example of their parents and other adults.
While the study is the basis for a new $2.6 million government campaign to teach children about the importance of good eating habits and exercise, the tips offered to parents in the "We Can!"
Government programs are not likely to override that message, no matter how convincing the evidence.
There are 9 million overweight children 6 to 16 years old in this country.
They are likely to grow into overweight adults who eventually are apt to have serious health problems due to their extra pounds.
Even after 8- to 10-year-olds spent three years in the study, being trained in good nutrition and improving their eating habits, one-third of their diets were still made up of snacks, desserts and pizza.
Perhaps that result could have been better if their parents had received equal training in good nutrition and then practiced what they learned.
Obesity is a national health problem, and adult obesity begins in childhood.
To break that cycle, parents must make changes in their own lifestyles and eating habits if they are to provide their children an example worth following.
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