Well, maybe. Reuters reports that
Parents who are strict disciplinarians are far more likely to wind up with children who are fat by age six, perhaps because the youngsters over-eat as a reaction to stress, a study said on Monday. The report from Boston University School of Medicine also found that the fewest weight problems occur among children whose parents are "authoritative" — having high expectations for self control but respectful of a child's opinions and who set clear boundaries. The study also found that children of parents who are permissive, defined as indulgent and without discipline, also have weight problems but not to the degree of the offspring of strict disciplinarians with low levels of sensitivity, the study said.
I wonder if the government, in its dogged fight against expanding waistlines, isn't making matters worse. After all, with all its attempts to take away food choices, it acts as a disciplinarian parent over all of us (see one post below for the latest example). Could it be that the whole anti-fat, anti-sugar campaign is terribly counterproductive — much as being lorded over by an authoritarian father and mother makes children eat more, not less? I wouldn't rule it out.
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