Overweight parents

Caption: Children who grow up in households with overweight parents are more likely to become overweight adults themselves. The factors are a mix of genetics and environment. Parents' knowledge of nutrition; their influence over food selection, meal structure, and home eating patterns; their modeling of healthful eating practices; their levels of physical activity; and their modeling of sedentary habits including television viewing are all influential in their children's development of lifelong habits that contribute to normal weight or to overweight and obesity. Preventing and controlling childhood obesity will require programs and policies that are multifaceted and community-wide, but that emphasize the central role parents must play in these wider efforts. Photo by Joan Liftin in "The Future of Children: Childhood Obesity" Brookings Institution