Kids should eat healthy, but how?

Ninety-seven percent of parents in the U.S. think that childhood eating habits determine children’s health for their lifetime, but only 17% say their child’s diet is very healthy, according to a recent national poll by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

The national survey, published on Feb. 20, was taken in October 2016 among 1,767 parents with at least one child age four to 18.

According to the survey:

73% rate their children’s diet as very or mostly healthy.
27% rate their children’s diet as somewhat or not healthy.
34% are confident they are shaping good eating habits of their children.
21% say it is somewhat or not important to cut down on junk food or fast food.
16% believe it is somewhat or not important to reduce sugary drinks.
13% say it is somewhat or not important that their child eats fruits and vegetables every day.

Sarah Clark, the survey’s co-director and associate research scientist at the University of Michigan, said there should be more understanding that it’s not easy for many parents to provide a regular, healthy diet for their children. She suggested parents take away this message: “You are not alone. For most of us, this feels like an unending battle.”

Clark said she was stumped by the result that one in five parents do not think it’s important to limit unhealthy food, even though most of them know they should. But she realized after analyzing the data that such an attitude is prevalent among parents of teenagers.