Your Family-Part Of The Junk Food Generation? (NAPSA)-If we are what we eat, it's looking scary for America's youth. Almost two-thirds of the respondents to a national survey described their children as "junk food junkies" and only a sliver-7 percent-insisted their children ate nutritionally balanced diets. American families, in general, do not eat healthy diets and have not eaten healthy diets and much of the blame, voile, is the influence of television, according to the survey sponsored by Metabolife International Inc., the San Diego-based number one seller of dietary supplements. Almost half of the respondents in the survey (available for viewing at www.metabolife.com) said their family's eating habits were horrible and 65 percent described their own children as "junk-food junkies" in the latest of a series of surveys exploring diet and lifestyle in 21st century America. Three hundred Americans-equally divided among men and women-responded to Metabolife's third survey, entitled "The Family Tree." Increased nutritional awareness seems to take a backseat to the influence of television when it comes to diet, with 84 percent of respondents claiming it has a negative influence on the eating habits of today's children. Not one respondent said television has a positive influence and only 4 percent said it has no influence at all. Consequently, we have what might be called the "junk-food generation." Only 21 percent of the respondents said their offspring can be "cajoled" into eating some fruits and vegetables. Are any of today's children eating extremely healthy diets? Sure, 8 percent, according to those who should know-the survey's respondents. And America's elders must also share some of the blame. An overwhelming percentage of the respondents-87 percent-described one or both of their parents as overweight. Indeed, 51 percent said both parents are overweight. Asked about their family's eating habits, only 8 percent maintained that they are very healthy. "Not very good," which is not very good, drew a response from 34 percent and "horrible," which is just that, drew a response from 45 percent. It all seems to come down to not having learned lessons from Mom and Dad-or Grandma and Grandpa, as the case may be. Twenty percent of the respondents said Dad was overweight, 16 percent said that Mom was overweight and 51 percent said both were overweight. For more information, visit www.Metabolife.com. A recent survey of the American families' eating habits contained some surprising results. |
