You are what your kids eat—and if you've got kids under the age of 17 at home, chances are you're consuming more fat than you otherwise would.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Iowa found that adults with young children at home consumed, on average, 5 extra grams of fat and 1.7 extra grams of saturated fat each day, as compared to adults who did not have children living at home. Parents may be choosing such foods because their busy schedules make higher-fat convenience foods more appealing and/or because they think their children prefer higher fat foods.
The authors of the study—who published their results in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine—noted that because kids play an increasingly important role in influencing the types of foods that are purchased by adults, food marketing messages aimed at kids may end up affecting the entire family's diet.