Aussie study takes bite out of snacking to reduce childhood obesity
It is not surprising that snacking has become a major contributor tochildhood obesity. Given the opportunity, most kids would happily shovelhandfuls of chips and chocolate into their mouths between meals, whether out ofhunger or boredom or both.
Lead researcher Dr. Jessica Kerr told Xinhua that contrary to commonadvice, the size of the container or dish in which snacks are served heldlittle influence, while the amount of food with which is presented plays amajor role.
The study looked at roughly 1,800 children aged 11-12 who were takingpart in a larger study - giving them 15-minute snack breaks in between 20 otherhealth assessments.
«What we found in this study was that children were reallysignificantly affected by how much food they were served, so when we gave themmore items and more choice, they consumed a lot more,» Kerr said.
«But surprisingly, the size of the dish wear, so the presentationof the foods, didn't have much of an effect and I say that's surprising becauseit is widely recommended that we use smaller plates for portion control, butour study actually didn't seem to find that the way foods were presented had abig effect.»
Australia's childhood obesity rate has ballooned to as much as threetimes that of thirty years ago, with one in five children now consideredoverweight or obese.
As a contributing factor in this Kerr believes that snacking has beenoverlooked in the past when it came to scientific studies.
She said that parents should pay more attention towards offeringchildren smaller amounts of food and, specifically, fewer and less variety ofenergy-dense foods and pre-packaged items.
«Unfortunately manufacturers do make unhealthy things tastedelicious, sodium rich rice crackers for example or chocolate or really highsugary muesli bars,» Kerr said.
«But you can do fun things for kids with fruit and vegetables aswell and plain rice crackers and plain popcorn and things like that, there'snothing wrong with those things.»