Especially if you have boys at home (or are planning for children) and you have stead fast rules about finishing your plate you might want to read this. We discuss with patients all the time that infants (up to 2-3yrs) have an internal shut off when it comes to eating and as we grow we find ways to rationalize and stop listening to those signals it to eat more. This article confirms those behaviors.
20-Oct-2014
Contact: Sandra Hutchinson
s3.hutchinson@qut.edu.au
61-731-389-449
Queensland University of Technology
@qut
Hungry
or not, kids will eat treats
Even though they are not hungry, children as young
as three will find high-energy treats too tempting to refuse, new QUT research
has found.
In a study of three and four year olds, 100 per
cent of children opted for a sweet or savory snack despite eating a filling
healthy lunch only 15 minutes prior.
Nutrition researcher Holly Harris, from QUT's
Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, said the results highlighted the
health risks for children frequently confronted with an abundance of
energy-dense, high-calorie foods.
Ms Harris's study, published in the journal Eating
Behaviors, looked at young children's eating habits in the absence of
being hungry and how parental feeding control impacted those behaviours in both
girls and boys.
"Of the 37 children who took part in the
study, all children displayed eating in the absence of hunger, even though more
than 80 per cent reported being full or very full just 15 minutes
earlier," Ms Harris said.
"An impaired ability to respond to signs of
feeling full and being unable to self-control food intake in an environment
where children are frequently faced with high-energy foods is likely to have
undesirable ramifications on a child's energy balance and weight status."
Ms Harris said pressure by mothers to eat was also
positively linked to higher levels of snack food intake in the absence of being
hungry, but this was a result found only with boys.
"Mothers who reported that they typically
pressured their boys to eat during meal times, had boys who also ate more
snacks when they were no longer hungry," she said.
"This adds weight to the argument that boys'
and girls' eating behaviours may be influenced or expressed in different ways.
"For example, in boys it may be that
controlled feeding practices such as encouraging boys to finish everything on
their plate may compromise their ability to determine their own hunger.
"Therefore they may be more likely to eat and
overeat in the presences of highly palatable snacks.
"So forcing boys to eat their breakfast, lunch
of dinner may impact their ability to self-regulate their snack food intake as
well."
She said when mothers pressured their girls to eat
it did not have the same impact on their child's snack consumption.
Ms Harris said people were born with a capacity to
self-regulate their food intake.
"Infants will not consume energy in excess of
what their body requires. Internal hunger and satiety signals are relayed to
the brain and tell infants when to stop and start eating," she said.
"But as we grow older, we become increasingly
aware of the abundance and rewarding value of food and in turn our ability to
respond appropriately to our appetite may diminish.
"In a society which constantly promotes
over-consumption from convenient, energy-dense foods a susceptibility to
respond to environmental food cues over appetite cues may lead to an imbalance
in energy and food intake and undesirable weight gain.
"Preserving this ability to self-regulate
energy intake early in life may be the key to resisting environmental stimuli
to eat, later in life."
###
The paper available here is co-authored by Dr
Kimberley Mallan, Dr Smita Nambiar-Mann and Professor Lynne Daniels.
Media contact:
Sandra Hutchinson, QUT Media (Tue, Wed), 07 3138
9449 or media@qut.edu.au
After hours, Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-10/quot-hon102014.php
