Parents, Kids, and Weight

This article argues the obvious: our weight and health problems are best solved within families.

According to UK researchers, found benefits for both children and their parents. The children, who were all overweight or obese at the study’s start, became less sedentary and managed to lose some weight.

Their parents, meanwhile, reported improvements in their relationships with their children, and in their own mental well-being.

Does this surprise anyone? What surprises me is the need to prove the obvious — that improving the health of any members of a family will trickle down to all those with relationships with that person.

One thing that was novel about this study was the effect, not just of teaching healthy behaviors, but of showing parents how to set boundaries (on faux food consumption, for example) and enforce those consistently.

When parents set clear guidelines, and did so in the context of positive, constructive support, the kids responded by eating better, being more active and — no surprise — lowering BMI.

Those are lessons we all could use a little reinforcement on.