BEST DIET : LOSE WEIGHT WITH BEST TRICK

Parents who exert too much control over what their children eat may not be doing their adolescents any favors when it comes to controlling the youngsters’ weight, according to the latest study.

Researchers report in the journal Pediatrics that pressure from parents to clean plates or to restrict eating high-calorie foods such as sweets and sugared sodas may not help teens to maintain a healthy weight.

(MORE: Want to Live Longer? Don’t Try Caloric Restriction)

The analysis included two studies of 2,231 students, with an average age of 14 years old in Minnesota, and 3,500 parents. The scientists assessed how moms and dads influenced their teens’ eating habits by rating their responses to statements such as, “My child should always eat all of the food on his or her plate” or “If my child says, ‘I am not hungry,’ I try to get him or her to eat anyway.” The parents also provided their views on statements such as, “If I did not guide or regulate my child’s eating, he or she would eat too much of his or her favorite food.”

Overall, parents of obese children were most likely to report that they needed to make sure their kids were not eating too many high-fat and sugary foods, while parents of nonoverweight kids were more likely to think their adolescents should eat all the food on their plate at each meal. Dads were more likely to pressure their kids to clean their plates, and adolescent boys tended to be pushed more than girls to eat more.

While such attention to children’s eating habits is certainly laudable, and parents are presumably guided by the best intentions, the results suggest that overly restrictive supervision of eating habits could backfire since such excessive control could actually increase, rather than reduce teens’ weight. Changing perceptions of normal weight may be playing a role in some of the parental pressure, while ballooning portion sizes may actually make some of the clean-plate advice unhealthy for adolescents. “I was surprised at some of the parent behaviors, like feeling that their children should clean their plates and not waste food,” study author Katie Loth, a registered dietician, doctoral candidate and research assistant at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told HealthDay. “In the 1950s, cleaning your plate meant something different. Portion sizes have gotten bigger over time, and if you encourage kids to rely on environmental indicators, like how much food is on their plates or the time of day, they’ll lose the ability to rely on internal cues to know whether they’re hungry or full.”

(MORE: Treat Yourself: Eating Dessert at Breakfast Can Aid Weight Loss)

In addition, he says, parents who impose eating habits on their children may be doing their youngsters a disservice since they discourage the teens from learning how to respond to their own hunger signals. Instead, the youngsters may use metrics such as cleaning their plate, regardless of how many calories weigh it down, or cutting out certain foods entirely, which studies show could lead people to compensate and even overeat by seeking more calories from other, potentially unhealthy foods.

The best advice? It’s a familiar refrain, but the scientists recommend that parents allow their children to eat all foods in moderation, and adopt other practices known to maintain healthy weights, like making sure there is a good supply of healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grain snacks in the house, and eating dinner as a family in order to teach children the importance of eating a diverse menu of foods in moderate amounts. While they seem simple, setting such an example of good eating habits may do more for keeping adolescents at healthy weights than more intrusive restrictions or rules about what and when to eat.

There’s nothing like a furry red creature with a big nose to add a dash of excitement to the churn of bureaucracy. Elmo bounded into the White House kitchen earlier this week and talked turkey with hunky assistant presidential chef Sam Kass (Elmo calls him “Mr. Sam”) to mark the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which aims to boost the nutrition and taste quotient found in school lunchrooms.

Elmo: Elmo’s a little worried. Elmo’s mommy told him he’s going to go to school and eat lunch in school.

Kass: So why are you worried? That’s great!

Elmo: Because what if there isn’t any good food at school?

Kass: Oh, Elmo, there’s going to be great food in school. And because of this new law that’s passed, we’re going to make sure that all food in school is healthy, nutritious and delicious.

Elmo: Really? (Here, the monster sounds incredulous. It is, in fact, quite a pledge. School lunches are not renowned for their healthiness, nutritiousness or deliciousness. Earlier this year, my kindergartener and second-grader begged to buy lunch at school. Tacos were on the menu, and they love tacos. Well, turns out they didn’t love school-lunch tacos; actually, they hated them. Their flirtation with school-lunch buying ended as quickly as it began. Fortunately, they have a choice. But many millions of kids who qualify for free or reduced school meals don’t.) (More on Time.com: More Muppets? The New ‘Superfoods’ Want Kids to Eat Healthy)

President Obama, who signed the legislation this week at a Washington, D.C., school, explained his support in terms of making sure “our kids have the energy and the capacity to go toe to toe with any of their peers, anywhere in the world. And we need to make sure that they’re all reaching their potential.”

What’s all this talk about capacity and potential got to do with the Sloppy Joes served up by the school cafeteria? More than 31 million U.S. children participate in school lunch programs. With the economy reeling, some of these kids get their only meals at school. Consider that one of every three kids in America qualifies as overweight or obese, and it’s not hard to see why breakfast and lunch eaten at school can make a big difference when it comes to many schoolchildren’s diet.

Both Democrats and Republicans hope the child nutrition bill will result in healthier food selection in school cafeterias and help teach kids about proper nutrition. It also aims to give the government the authority to set nutritional standards for all foods regularly sold in schools during the school day, including vending machines, and offers additional funding to schools that offer more nutritious meals. (More on Time.com: Study: 40% of Kids’ Calories Come From Solid Fat and Sugar)

First Lady Michele Obama, who has mounted a public campaign against childhood obesity, commented that “we can all agree that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, all children should have the basic nutrition they need to learn and grow and to pursue their dreams, because in the end, nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our children.  Nothing.”

But back to Elmo. The preschooler is incredulous when he hears that Kass intends to show him some examples of the kind of food he can expect to find in the school lunchroom. (More on Time.com: Mom and Consumer Group Sue McDonald’s For Luring Kids with Happy Meal Toys)

Elmo: Mr. Sam has the same kind of food that they have at school here at the White House?

Kass: I do.

Elmo: Well, that’s very convenient. (Elmo does a great job of saying this tongue-in-cheek.)

Kass whips out a few plates of appetizingly prepared and perfectly balanced meals — whole-wheat lasagna and salad, rice-and-bean burritos, garnished with apples and carrots.

If it’s good enough for the White House, apparently, it’s good enough for our public schools. Or is it the other way around?

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Exercising willpower is certainly an important technique for losing weight. But according to James Hill, executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado, you can’t rely on it as an inexhaustible resource.

“You only have a certain amount of it, and it’s gone,” Hill tells CNN Health.

The trick is to recognize that willpower is finite, and plan ahead of time how to get through “fattening” moments. If you know you’ll be tempted by all the free treats at a party, for instance, don’t arrive famished — eat a protein bar beforehand to keep yourself from eating too much once you arrive. If you’re worried that you’ll return from a trip to Italy carrying extra weight in cannolis, enlist help from your friends. You don’t have to skip dessert entirely — just make sure you share with your companions.

For the full article on ways to outwit your “fat moments,” head over to CNN Health.

More on TIME.com:

Want to Lose Weight While You Do Nothing? Try Exercising First

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Calorie Counts on Menus: Apparently, Nobody Cares

Americans quaff nearly 10 billion gallons of bottled water each year, in large part because they assume, wrongly, that it’s healthier and safer than tap water. Somewhat surprisingly, the data has suggested, underserved black and Latino families tend to spend more money than whites do on bottled water, and provide it exclusively for their kids.

While previous research has shown that minorities use bottled water more often than whites, the question has always been, why? A new study in the Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine aimed to find out, by surveying 632 parents, 32% of whom were Latino, 33% African American, and 35% white.

(More on TIME.com: The USDA Ditches the Food Pyramid for a Plate)

The study’s authors, from the department of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, report that African American and Latino parents were three times more likely to give their children bottled water exclusively, compared with white parents. When questioned about their habits, minority parents reported that that they thought bottled water was cleaner, safer, healthier, more convenient and better tasting than tap.

In fact, the study author’s note, bottled water may be prone to bacterial contamination. A National Resources Defense Council investigation found that 17% of bottled waters had bacterial loads that were considered unsafe; 22% were tainted with enough chemicals, including arsenic, that they wouldn’t pass the strictest state standards.

What’s more, data have associated bottled water with diarrheal illness in kids: a 2010 study found that 45% of children who sought treatment for severe diarrhea drank only bottled water. And kids who use bottled water exclusively in place of tap may not get enough exposure to fluoride, which can affect their oral health. (It’s worth noting, too, that about one-quarter of all bottled waters are actually just tap water, repackaged — regardless of the pure mountain spring on the label.)

Overall, bottled water use was high, the current survey found, with 45% of parents saying their kids drank primarily or exclusively from bottled sources (broken down by ethnicity, more than 20% of Latino and black parents used only bottled water, compared with 10% of white parents). Factors like household income or previous residence outside the U.S. — where in many places bottled water may actually be healthier and cleaner than municipal sources — weren’t associated with bottled water consumption.

(More on TIME.com: Teens Don’t Need Sports and Energy Drinks, Pediatricians Say)

Indeed researchers found that families with lower incomes were more likely to buy bottled water: white families reported spending an average 0.4% (or about $12 a month) of their household income on bottled water, while African American and Latino families spent an average 1% (or $20 a month) of their incomes. Further, 12% of African American respondents and 14% of Latino respondents reported having to sacrifice other goods in order to afford their bottled water habit.

“The disproportionate use of bottled water by poor and minority families may contribute to health disparities,” write the authors. “Despite these perceptions about the safety and health effect of bottled water, there is little if any objective evidence that in most circumstances there is any actual health benefit of bottled water over tap water in the United States.”

(More on TIME.com: Cafeteria Cams Track Students’ Calorie Consumption at School)

Given the high cost and health consequences of consuming exclusively bottled water, the researchers hope their efforts will lead to public education campaigns about water from the tap: it’s free, it’s healthy and it usually even tastes good.