Don’t ‘yuck’ someone else’s ‘yum.’

Kids eat healthier when their parents do, said Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Ph.D., an author and researcher at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. So exposing them to healthy food choices and being a positive role model — such as by viewing food as “a source of joy and nourishment” rather than as an enemy, said Dr. Neumark-Sztainer — can go a long way in improving their body image and their relationship with food.

Whitney Linsenmeyer, Ph.D., a registered dietitian and a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, works with college students who have eating disorders as part of her role as an assistant professor at Saint Louis University. Dr. Linsenmeyer said that she sees firsthand how parents’ unhealthy relationships with food can get passed down to their children. She mentioned a patient with anorexia nervosa who remembered that, during her childhood and teenage years, her mother struggled with her own weight and obsessed over which foods have too much fat. While the patient didn’t necessarily attribute her mother’s comments to her eating disorder, Dr. Linsenmeyer said that, in her opinion, the mom’s influence played a role, as patients sometimes may not recognize comments as harmful if they occurred during childhood.

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