I think all our Asian brothers and sisters have been threatened by our parents in this way to finish all our food at meal times. Turns out this is bad advice according to this recent CNN article!

An interesting article looking at the cause of poor eating habits and possible contributions to obesity in the future. You don’t have to read the whole thing, the gist is that poor eating habits develop when food is restricted by parents, as well as when parents pressure their kids to finish their plate even after their kids say they are full. Here’s the reasoning:

Parental pressure to eat can be detrimental to children because it takes away from a child’s ability to respond naturally to their own hunger,” said Loth. “Instead, (it) encourages them to respond to cues in their environment which can lead to unhealthy weight gain over time.

Sounds reasonable enough. It probably does has an effect on molding attitudes towards food, and us future Asian parents will have to find a new way to teach not to be wasteful. What I did wholeheartedly agree with was how the article concluded:

And most importantly, “parents should also work hard to model healthy eating and a healthy relationship with food to their child” by eating a well-balanced diet

The obesity epidemic is actually pretty frightening. More and more kids are developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and liver disease from cholesterol issues. It’s going to be a sad day indeed when we start seeing kids on dialysis or the transplant list because of obesity-related complications. Our battle has to be in the homes, and until everyone is on board, then any medication, exercise regimen, or diet plan we prescribe will have very little lasting effect.

It’s interesting how much of who we are today has been influenced by the lives we saw modeled, especially in our parents, from as benign as using our dish washers as dry racks to very destructive and hurtful patterns of living. While the Bible is clear that each person will be held accountable to his or her sins, sin’s effects are far-reaching, often times propagating through an endless, terrible cycle across generational lines.

Being in church ministry I have heard often people share how they vowed they would never do what their parents did, yet when similar situations presented themselves, they did the same thing.  The good news of the Gospel is that in Christ there is new life, and in Christ there is power to cast off the old and embrace life as God intended.

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; The old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

How have you seen yourself repeat things your parents did?