A report from four government agencies on food marketing to children is doing more to parent the parents than address childhood obesity House Republicans said Wednesday.

At the hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, lawmakers ripped an Obama administration working group report for not addressing the advertising and obesity problem but controlling the family dinner plate.

The hearing convened the FDA’s Interagency Working Group, which includes members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Trade Commission.

“While this initiative was portrayed as a helping hand to parents – to reduce children’s exposure to advertising for foods with limited nutritional value – to many of us and our constituents, this appears to be a first step towards Uncle Sam planning our family meals,” said committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.

The report was commissioned to look at how advertising agencies use cartoons to market to children and what measures can be taken to reduce their exposure. But in the report released in April, the group issued guidelines that some says go beyond just targeting advertising on television but also would move to restrict cartoons from appearing on food labels, sporting events and even charity organizations.

“The IWG proposal supports voluntary industry efforts to address childhood obesity by improving the nutritional quality of foods marketed to children,” said Dr. William Dietz, director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the CDC.”

“The proposed principles are designed to encourage children, through advertising and marketing, to choose foods that make a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet; and contain limited amounts of nutrients that have a negative impact on health or weight,” He said.

“The proposal reflects the belief that a voluntary approach is preferable to government-imposed restrictions on food marketed to children.”

The issue of childhood obesity in the country has worsened over the years. Approximately 32 percent of children and adolescents of ages 2 to 19 are overweight or obese. Seventeen percent are considered obese.

The food industry has made changes to self-regulate including cutting calories and fats in foods following a 2006 Institute of Medicine report.