public healthy: parental eating habits don't mean squat

Interestingly, parents' eating habits dont' influence kids' eating behaviors nearly as much as one would think, according to some epidemiologists from Johns Hopkins. and that other factors- such as TV or advertising- may play a larger role in the kind of diets kids eat. This study made me a little sad, first because I think it's kinda depressing to think that the influence of TV might outweigh parents, who are actually giving the kids food. (Although this also makes me wonder- how do parents' TV watching habits impact kids? Maybe there's some relationship there, too, since parents are the ones spending the cash in the grocery store).

The study also says that very few parents actually did have healthy diets, and that their kids were more likely to eat healthy too. This makes sense: after all, what's the point of teaching kids about the food pyramid if Mom and Dad are chowing down on Mickey D's?

Lately I just keep wondering, why is it so complicated for adults (and in turn, their kids) to eat healthily? For all our good intentions, it just seems like we make this unnecessarily hard on ourselves. Someone needs to apply Occam's razor to this situach, and instead of bombarding us with endless conflicting studies, literature, education, and magazines, simplify the problem....so we can find, if not an easy solution, a livable and effective one. A person shouldn't have to have an advanced degree in nutrition or a loaded wallet to eat well each day.

(image from http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/ )