Parents set the agenda for a child's health and wellbeing. Thus our childhood obesity issue may be stemming from poor examples set by parents with unhealthy eating habits. Photo / Thinkstock
Have you been to the food court lately? It's school holiday time and all around the country, these places are filled with the joyous sounds of kids and adults chowing down on their favourite treats.
I was at my local food court in Auckland's St Lukes mall the other day
and there were people walking everywhere, with plates piled high with greasy, glistening mountains of deep fry from the buffet. The sheer volume of food some people can put away is quite something - and this was just before lunch.
It's difficult to know the right way to say this, without sounding like a preacher and a prat, but judging by the food court scene, it's no wonder New Zealand has an obesity problem. The people carrying those big plates of food were big - some very big - and they had large kids in tow.
Yes, it's the school holidays and children do deserve treats. My kids eat McDonalds occasionally, they have ice blocks and lollies, and they like nothing better than pie and chips with lashings of tomato sauce on a Friday night (that's if we don't have takeaways).
But these are treats, and for the majority of the week they get bog standard fare - meat and vege - just like the meals my folks used to feed my sister and I. That mantra, "if you don't eat your greens you're not having any pudding", was pretty much my lot when I was a kid (apart from fish and chips on Friday night). And it's the same in our household.
