Mothers of 174 children aged 2 to 12, completed a questionnaire and more. A greater percentage of parents with younger children rated their child as ‘œjust as’ or ‘œa little more’ active than their peers as compared to the percentage of parents with older children. Additionally, parents reported that the older children watched significantly more hours of TV on weekend days than the younger children. Taken together, these findings suggest that parent reporting of behaviors commonly believed to promote childhood obesity increases with older children.
Archive for category Nutrition and obesity
Airline can’t charge disabled or obese people for an extra ticket when they need an additional seat or an attendant to accompany them. The Supreme Court of Canada in November 2008 refused to hear an appeal from the airline, upholding a Canadian Transportation Agency ruling ordering carriers to charge all passengers the same fare and not make people pay extra when they need an additional seat for medical reasons.
Children who watched more television and ate fewer family meals were more likely to be overweight for the first time at spring semester of third grade. Children who watched more television, ate fewer family meals, and lived in neighborhoods perceived by parents as less safe for outdoor play were more likely to be persistently overweight.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied how cash incentives influenced weight loss among 57 people who were obese but otherwise healthy. One group of dieters was given $3 a day plus additional matching funds for meeting weight loss goals, meaning they could earn up to an extra $168 during a four-week period. A second group was eligible to compete in a cash lottery for $10 to $100 a day during the study period if they achieved weight loss goals. A third control group simply attended monthly weigh-in sessions. At the end of 16 weeks, the dieters in the lottery group had lost an average of 13.1 pounds each, while those in the matching-funds group had lost an average of 14 pounds each, compared to just 3.9 pounds in the control group.
Researchers at Princeton University claim that they have laid down the final pieces of evidence necessary to prove the existence of sugar addiction in animal studies.
Oxford Health Alliance organized this workshop. Watch the 10 minute video from the event. Derek Yach from Pepsico gave a presentation.
CSPI objected to a last minute attempt by the outgoing Bush Administration to institutionalize a Food and Drug Administration practice permitting so-called “qualified health claims” on food labels. Such claims can be based on flimsy scientific evidence. Imagine food industry likes to use claims even though they have to add sentences like ‘The FDA concludes that there is little scientific evidence supporting this claim’.
Research results released mid January by the University of South Australia found that obesity rates among children levelled off in the late 1990s and have remained steady since.
The chairman of the Australian Government’s Preventative Health Taskforce, Professor Rob Moodie, said the taskforce will be assessing different approaches to food labelling, including moves in the US to include the calorie content of foods on restaurant menus. We need to work out what the best form of labelling is, the clearest form for the consumer, he said.The taskforce wants to halve Australia’s obesity rate by 2020 by taxing unhealthy foods, regulating sugar and fat content, and restricting junk food advertising, particularly to children.
Wales has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the world with 22% of 13-year-old boys and 16% of girls classed as either overweight or obese.