Monday, March 03, 2008

Children who start the day with a healthy breakfast stay trimmer

According to statistical data, the rate the obesity in children is increasing alarmingly. I my self have packed a few extra pounds although I am not a child nor teenager. Just read the following data from CDC, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But still there is hope, Just having a healthy breakfast may prevent a child from getting obese. Follow the link at the end to research paper published on Pediatrics to get complete information.

"The prevalence of overweight among children aged 6 to 11 more than doubled in the past 20 years, going from 7% in 1980 to 18.8% in 2004. The rate among adolescents aged 12 to 19 more than tripled, increasing from 5% to 17.1%."

The March 2008 issue of Pediatrics has an research paper on how breakfast affects the weight control in adolescents.
Project EAT (Eating Among Teens), a 5-year longitudinal study, was developed to examine eating patterns and weight concerns among adolescents. The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between breakfast frequency and relative body weight in both cross-sectional and prospective (5-year body weight change) analyses in adolescent males and females. We hypothesized that breakfast frequency would have an inverse association with body weight and with weight gain. Examining this question across both cross-sectional and prospective analyses allowed us to evaluate the robustness of the findings and to make comparison with the different study designs in the literature. We also examined the correlates of breakfast frequency, including demographic, dietary, and psychosocial (weight-related) factors that may be confounders or mediators of any breakfast–weight change association.
The results were pointing that if you have breakfast regularly, that may lead to weight control;
" At time 1, the greatest percentage of study participants ate breakfast intermittently (56.5% and 49.1%, girls and boys, respectively; Table 1). Those individuals who never ate breakfast were more likely to be girls (16.4%) than boys (13.0%; P = .03), whereas those who ate breakfast daily were more likely to be boys (37.9%) than girls (27.2%; P < .0001). The greatest change over time was observed in boys, where there was a 16.8% decrease from time 1 to time 2 in the participants who ate breakfast daily, such that at time 2 there was no difference in the prevalence of daily breakfast by gender (P = .96)."

As rates of breakfast consumption decrease throughout adolescence and into adulthood, the impact of regular breakfast consumption on public health may be significant. More emphasis should be placed on breakfast habits, especially among adolescents and young adults, when behavioral patterns are developing and stabilizing. One venue that may be appropriate for interventions is the school setting. Interventions should be aimed at promoting a healthful breakfast (eg, whole grain cereals, low-fat milk, and fresh fruit), because diets including nutrient- and fiber-rich carbohydrates have been shown to lead to weight loss and reduce disease risk. Interventions could promote the ease and practicality of the breakfast meal, which can be eaten at home, school, or work. Long-term studies including these types of interventions will be needed to evaluate the possibility of an important causal link between breakfast consumption and risk for obesity and chronic diseases, as well as for implementing generalizable community-based programs.
Children who start the day with a healthy breakfast stay trimmer.

Pediatrics article on child obesity control with healthy breakfast.

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