Who are kids listening to when they choose what to eat? Not parents

This will come as no surprise to parents: You really have little influence over what your kids eat -- and they’re more likely to eat unhealthy food and be swayed by outside forces, a new study finds.

This Baltimore Sun story explains: “Researchers looked at 30 years’ worth of studies and found that kids’ diets have become far different from their parents’, and they appear less healthy.” Check out this news release about the study by Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

What about those outside influences? They’re friends, schools, stores and advertisers among others, the story suggests. “The parents’ influence was weak,” co-author May Beydoun told the paper. “Parents can have an influence, but there needs to be a concerted effort outside the home.”

That may mean giving kids a healthier message about food -- from outside the home. “The promotion of healthy foods like fruits and vegetables through advertising remains practically nonexistent, at less than 1 percent of all food marketing,” Elizabeth Pivonka, president and chief executive of the Produce for Better Health Foundation, writes in this South Florida Sun Sentinel column. “And because commercial enterprises work on a supply-and-demand model, the demand for fruits and vegetables must be created — in part by educational campaigns to generate a “fruit and vegetable paradigm shift.”

Hmm, why not. The new child nutrition bill signed into law earlier this month could help, too. Here’s a Los Angeles Times story that explains it.