Reduced quantity of food gets children to snack less
The latest Australian research on food and health offers a unique take: a reduced quantity/variety of food encourages children to snack less. Children are not affected by plate size, even though replacing large dishware with smaller ones has been a popular move to achieve better food consumption.
For the new study, researchers looked at the health of 1800 11- and 12-year olds and their parents across a variety of factors from physical activity to sleep – in particular, what they ate during a 15-minute snack break at the Child Health CheckPoint, Australia. The children and parents were given varying snack food items such as crackers, cheese, a muesli bar, biscuits, a tub of peaches and chocolate, in different snack box sizes. The children also ate separately and at different times from their parents. Researchers recorded how much food each participant left in the box uneaten, and then calculated the total grams and kilojoules consumed.
While manipulating box/container size had little effect on consumption,Dr. Jessica Kerr of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) observed from the results that children who were offered more snack items consumed considerably more energy and slightly more food than adults.
In children, food consumption is primarily driven by the quantity/variety of snacks offered, as opposed to adults who may change their food behaviours from time to time. This instance in children greatly contributes to obesity – about three times as many Australian children are currently affected compared to 30 years ago, “About 20% (1 in 5) of children are overweight or obese; the complications of children being overweight include type-2 diabetes, orthopaedic and respiratory disorders, liver problems and sleep apnoea.”
Dr. Kerr goes on to explain that most people do not recognise the impact over consumption of snack foods has on their calorie intake, and that children and adults should only consume energy-dense snacks occasionally –snacks need not be part of their daily energy intake.
But, as past dietary studies only focused on main meals and not snacks, it is important to determine on a larger scale how dishware size and the quantity, variety, and energy density of snacks affect both child and adult snacking behavior when apart from each other outside of the family environment.
Dr. Kerrthus encourages further research that also involves parents and community leaders, to better understand the use and purpose of snack food items in the face of child preferences, time pressures, and marketing.
“Our research indicates that more attention and resources should be directed to toward offering children smaller amounts of food and, specifically, fewer and less variety of energy-dense foods and pre-packaged items. Interventions should not solely invest in reducing dishware size in the expectation that this will lead to reduced intake of snack foods.”
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