Setting a child on the right path in eating habits, blatantly ignoring children not being fed or over eating both equate to similar end, either are wrong.
Parents are able to make meals interesting and fun learning from an exceptionally young age, it is all about teaching from young, outside influences are where much is going wrong. Advertising of quick meals, convenient sweets, crisps are something of a minefield once children grow up.
Teach them well from as young as you are able, in planting, growing, cleaning from the basics make it a healthy game.
On the weekends, we let Smallsteps (as of this summer) turn the TV on herself and watch some shows (preselected) for a couple hours. I write a note to her to say there is some food in the fridge and draw a funny picture for her on these mornings. The food is some carrot, capsicum, cucumber sticks, with tomatoes and some grapes - or something similar. She loves it.
How we teach from young is what they normally remember and carry through to when they grow up. Everything in moderation with a balanced diet makes for a bright mind and healthy body.