[PHNUTR-L] The bigger the serving, the more young children will eat

[Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD]

Colleagues, the following is FYI and does not necessarily reflect my own
opinion. I have no further knowledge of the topic.
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Public release date: 15-Jun-2005
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/cuns-tbt061505.php

Contact: Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
bpf2 at cornell.edu
607-254-8093
Cornell University News Service

The bigger the serving, the more young children will eat

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Contrary to what many people believe, preschool children 
do not adjust how much they eat in response to how much they ate at 
their last meal or in the past 24 hours or how calorie-rich their meal 
is. By far, the most powerful predictor for how much children eat is how 
much food is put on their plate, concludes a new study by Cornell 
University researchers.

"We examined all the predictors we could of how much a child eats at a 
meal," said David Levitsky, professor of nutritional sciences and of 
psychology at Cornell. "We found that portion size is, by far, the most 
important factor in predicting how much a child will eat. These findings 
suggest that both the onus of controlling children's weight -- both in 
causing overweight in children as well as in its prevention -- must rest 
squarely in the hands of parents and other caregivers."

Levitsky and Gordana Mrdjenovic, Cornell Ph.D. '00, monitored the food 
intake of 16 preschool children, ages 4-6, for five to seven consecutive 
days in day-care centers, and parents kept a food diary of what their 
children ate in the evenings and weekends.

"We found that the more food children are served, the more they eat, 
regardless of what they've eaten previously in the day, including how 
big their breakfast was," said Levitsky. "We also found that the more 
snacks children are offered, the greater their total daily food and 
calorie intake."

The study is published in the June issue of Appetite (44:3, pp. 273-282).

Although previous studies had suggested that children regulate their 
food intake much more precisely than adults, most of those studies were 
conducted in laboratories, not in natural settings where environmental 
factors can play a very powerful role in determining a child's food 
intake, Levitsky said.

A previous study by the two Cornell nutritionists similarly reported 
that children do not adjust for the amount of food they eat to 
compensate for how many sweetened drinks they have either at meals or 
between meals. And in a previous study, Levitsky, with a different 
co-author, reported that the more food young adults are served, the more 
they eat.

Childhood obesity is now considered an epidemic in the United States. 
According to the National Institutes of Health, the number of children 
who are overweight has doubled in the last two to three decades; 
currently one child in five is overweight. The increase is in both 
children and adolescents, and in all age, race and gender groups. Obese 
children are now developing diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, that used 
to occur only in adults. Researchers now know that overweight children 
tend to become overweight adults, continuing to put them at greater risk 
for heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. Overweight children 
not only suffer more health problems but also social discrimination, 
which puts them at higher risk for low self-esteem and depression.
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The study, which was part of the Ph.D. degree awarded to Mrdjenovic, was 
supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
-- 
Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD < fivestar at nutritionucanlivewith.com >
"Ask the Parkinson Dietitian"  http://www.parkinson.org/
"Eat well, stay well with Parkinson's disease"
"Parkinson's disease: Guidelines for Medical Nutrition Therapy"
http://www.nutritionucanlivewith.com/