From the Editors of Common Sense Media

Magazines with ultra-thin models; TV celebrities who are so thin that their chest bones show; $10 billion a year in food and beverage marketing to kids. No wonder a recent Harvard University study showed that 2/3 of underweight 12-year-old

Media plays a big role in our kids' weight struggles. Between unrealistic images of slimness and the constant marketing to kids of junk food, our children are bombarded with messages that don’t result in healthy attitudes and practices when it comes to their bodies.

Here are a few tips to help your kids be realistic and healthy:

• De-code junk food ads. Point out that there’s a junk food ad every 5 minutes during Saturday morning cartoons. Tell your kids that the food and beverage industry spends billions of dollars to put pictures of favorite cartoon characters on less- than-healthy food. Ask your kids why they think advertisers place their ads where they do and use the celebrities they use. What emotions or aspirations are the advertisers hoping to create in your kids? What isn’t the advertiser saying in the ad? Click here for a great tip sheet.

• Do some myth busting. What promises do ads make that might be unrealistic? Help your kids do a “reality check” on the associations that ads create. Do your kids really think that if they buy a certain food, they'll look like the people selling it?

For more tips, visit the original article at:  http://www.commonsensemedia.org/parent_tips/commonsense_view/index.php?id=161 .