Tagged: NPR Series: On The Run

We touched a nerve recently when we asked about dinnertime as part of On the Run, our series exploring how crucial everyday decisions are made about food and exercise.

"No matter how close a relationship I develop with the Crock-Pot," wrote mom Celeste Higgins, it's still hard to get dinner on the table before 8 p.m.

If you're a parent, you've probably heard remarks like this during dinner: "I don't like milk! My toast is burnt! I hate vegetables! I took a bite already! What's for dessert?" It can be daunting trying to ensure a healthy diet for our children. So it's no wonder parents often resort to dinner time rules.

About 69 percent of American adults are overweight or obese, and more than four in five people say they are worried about obesity as a public health problem.

But a recent poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health revealed a curious schism in our national attitudes toward obesity: Only one in five kids had a parent who feared the boy or girl would grow up to be overweight as an adult.