Right on the heels of a study out of England showing infants who were fed homemade baby food went on to have better eating habits as adutls than infants who were fed jarred baby food, a study conducted at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, shows similar results.
The study, involving nearly 30,000 children aged 2 to 18 years found that food eaten outside the home contributed to obesity.
Oh boy, get ready for the food nannies to jump all over this report! No doubt, they’ll point to this study as evidence that restaurant food and food sold in stores is terrible for our kids. But that simply is the wrong message to take away from this study.
Instead, this study backs up already solid evidence that parenting, not the food industry, determine a child’s weight. The largest study on childhood obesity found that only three things help a child stay at a healthy weight: going to bed early, watching less television, and sitting down to a family dinner every night.
Parents who take the time to practice these three good parenting habits also probably cook simple meals for their families.