How To Teach Kids to Eat Well

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 7, 2009 at 8:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

Obesity may be the single most common health problem of the new generation of Americans. And behaviors learned in childhood can determine whether people will keep their weight under control. Kerri Bou

Originally aired on June 17, 2008.

Maureen Cavanaugh: Americans have developed a very strange relationship with food. We have more information than any society as ever had about the contents and the nutrients in the food we eat. Even so, poor eating habits and obesity top our list of national health problems.

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Our national eating disorder doesn't start in adulthood. Bad eating habits picked up during childhood can, unfortunately, last a lifetime. And most of this behavior has its roots, not in hunger pangs but in emotional needs.

Last summer, Tom Fudge talked with UCSD psychiatry professor Kerri Boutelle. Dr. Boutelle is a member of the university's Eating Disorders Research Center. She developed guidelines that help parents teach their kids to develop a healthy approach to eating.

Guest

Kerri Boutelle, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UCSD.