Working Thesis

In order to create a healthier environment for children and to put a halt to the increasing rates of obesity in today's youth, there must be a combined effort from the government, marketing companies, and most importantly, parents so that they make a conscious effort to mold their children’s eating habits.

In their article, “Parents as the Exclusive Agents of Change in the Treatment of Childhood Obesity,” Moria Golan, Abragam Weizman, Alan Apter, and Menahem Fainaru argue that parents are the most effective tool in the approach to decrease the rates of obesity in children. The authors back up there claim by giving trends, percentages, and statistics which all point to the fact that parents are the most effective way to create and maintain a healthy lifestyle for children. In order to get this point across, the authors state: “Parents and adult caregivers play an important role in the development of proper eating habits by young children. The parents’ food preferences, the quantities, and variety of foods in the home, the parents’ eating behavior, and the parents’ physical activity patterns work in concert to establish an emotional environment in which obesity may or may not be discouraged.”