Recently, the Associated Press reported that nutrition education has little impact on kids and their poor eating habits.

Despite federal spending of over $1 billion on these programs this year alone, the childhood obesity epidemic continues to grow.

Does anyone really expect the majority of kids to pick fruits and vegetables over junk food if they’re given a choice?

I think that’s the crux of the problem: “if they’re given a choice…”

If you let kids decide on their bedtime, most will stay up late.

If you let them determine their hygiene habits, most kids won’t take a bath often.

And if you let kids make all or most of their own food choices, they’ll choose what tastes best to them — junk food.

That’s why kids have parents. To make the healthy, responsible, and often unpopular choices.

It’s also not realistic to think you can control what your kids eat when they’re not with you.

I remember bringing my lunch to elementary school. It was usually a sandwich, a cupcake or some sweet snack, and an apple.

My mother always packed apples because she figured they were healthy.

And they would’ve been — except I pitched them into the garbage can. So did all the other kids.

Still, there was no childhood obesity epidemic when I was young… even though most of us ate junk food when we got home from school.

Here’s why:

Our parents made us eat good dinners with all those pesky vegetables. We didn’t eat fast food every day.

In the summer, we rode bikes and went swimming. In the winter, we built snowmen or ran around inside.

Even if we just sat around, we didn’t stuff our faces 24 hours a day. Our parents set limits. We didn’t get a choice.

It’s great to educate kids about nutrition. But they’re still kids. They just want to do what feels good. They don’t worry about developing heart disease or diabetes. That’s our job.

So I think this is less a problem of nutrition education and more a problem of parental oversight.

That doesn’t mean there will never be another obese kid. But an epidemic suggests a cultural problem, not just a food problem.

You don’t have to stop your kids from eating junk food altogether. But you can set limits and enforce them at home.

You can make your kids get exercise.

If you’re tempted to make excuses, then answer this: if you knew your child would die tomorrow or next week unless you controlled his eating, would work or any other excuse stop you?

Of course not. You’d find a way.

I know that sounds harsh. It’s not meant to place a guilt trip on anyone. But the health consequences for these kids are serious.

Maybe I’m wrong.  But I’m firmly convinced the answer to the childhood obesity epidemic starts at home.