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How should parents discuss eating habits and weight with their teenagers? To examine this question, investigators analyzed data from two linked population-based studies involving 2300 ethnically diverse adolescents (mean age, 14 years) and 3500 parents or caregivers. Parents were classified as having no conversations about eating (healthy or otherwise) or weight with their children, healthful eating conversations only, or conversations about weight only.
Among nonoverweight adolescents, parental discussions about healthy eating had little or no effect on adolescent reports of dieting, unhealthy or extreme weight control behaviors, or binge eating, compared with no parental discussions about eating or weight. In contrast, parental conversatio…