Childhood Obesity - Do you have an overweight child? We offer tips to help your child lose weight and get fit!

More evidence that compulsive overeating may not simply be a failure of willpower. A new study from the Scripps Research Institute in Florida found that high calorie, high-fat foods can be addictive in laboratory animals.

• Dr. Paul Kenny and his colleagues allowed one group of rats to eat as much bacon, sausage, cheese cake, frosting, and other high calorie foods as they wanted.
  
• These rats quickly became obese, but the researchers also found that they developed a tolerance to the pleasure they got from food.
  
• Like drug addicts, they had to keep eating more to experience the same pleasures.
  
• Overeating caused levels of dopamine receptors in their brains to drop, a phenomenon associated with drug addiction and obesity.

"People know intuitively that there is more to overeating than just low will power," said Dr. Kenny. "There is a system in the brain that has been turned on or over-activated, and that is driving overeating at some subconscious level."

The study appeared in the journal Neuroscience.

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A study that was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that eating a meal quickly curtails the release of hormones in the gut area that induce feelings of being full. When such hormones are decreased, people tend to overeat.

Dr. Alexander Kokkinos of the Laiko General Hospital in Greece had study participants eat the same amount of ice cream at different rates, and then took blood samples to measure their hormones. The participants who took the full half-hour to eat their ice cream had higher levels of certain hormones and tended to feel fuller than those who ate quickly.

"The warning we were given as children that 'wolfing down your food will make you fat' may in fact have a physiological explanation," said Dr. Kokkinos.

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Several recent studies have indicated that overweight people tend to have overweight friends. Now a new report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that overweight friends may actually encourage one another to overeat.

• Researchers at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine enrolled 23 overweight and 42 normal weight children ages nine to 15 years old in their study.
• The children could select a friend that they knew or an unfamiliar person of a similar age as their partner.
• Then they went in a room with games, puzzles and bowls of snacks.
• They could choose healthy snacks, such as carrots and grapes, or junk foods such as potato chips and cookies.
• Children who were paired with friends tended to eat more.
• Overweight children paired with either overweight friends or strangers ate more than overweight children paired with normal weight children

"Being in the company of overweight peers may give them permission to eat more or may decrease their inhibitions, increasing what are seen as the norms of appropriate eating or how much one should eat," said Professor Sarah Salvy. "These results are important, considering the role of friends as agents of change in childhood and adolescence."

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A study conducted by the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has found that friends and other social factors play important roles in a child's eating habits. According to an Aug. 5 ScienceDaily article, the Buffalo researchers found that friends may act at "permission givers" for kids who are overweight or obese:

The study involved 23 overweight and 42 normal weight children between the ages of 9 and 15, who were randomized to participate with either a friend or an unfamiliar person of a similar age. After randomization, there were 33 friend pairs and 39 "unfamiliar" pairs. ...

Results showed that friends who ate together consumed more food than participants who were paired with someone they didn't know, and that friends were more likely to eat similar amounts than participants paired with a stranger.

However, overweight children who were paired with an overweight peer, whether friend or stranger, ate more than the overweight participants who were paired with a normal weight youth.

"Given the impact of friends on eating behavior, it appears that if we hope to change the growing obesity epidemic among children, friends and family need to be involved," researcher Sarah Salvy, Ph.D., said in the ScienceDailyarticle.

The Buffalo research was published in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

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A study that was presented before the European Congress on Obesity found that the obesity epidemic in the United States is a result of overeating, not under-exercising.

"Weight gain in the American population seems to be virtually explained by eating more calories ... Changes in physical activity played a minimal role," said Boyd Swinburn, director of the World Health Organization.

Researchers calculated the actual number of calories needed every day by tracking 1,400 adults and 960 children. Then they calculated the number of calories Americans actually ate between the years 1970 and 2000, based on the amount of food produced annually, the amount thrown away, and the amount used by animals.

By comparing the figures, the researchers then predicted that adults would be 23.8 pounds heavier in 2000 than they were in 1970. The actual number was 19.6 pounds, which was close to the estimate.

The researchers explained that modern American adults would have to cut 500 calories a day, or exercise moderately for 110 minutes a day, to weigh what they did 30 years ago. For children, the statistics translate to a decrease of 350 calories per day and an increase of 150 minutes of moderate daily exercise.

As summertime approaches, children who are having trouble following a healthy diet or getting adequate amounts of exercise may benefit from participating in a science-based, professionally supervised weight-loss summer camp.

Labels: overeating, obesity_rates, exercise

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Dr. David Kessler believes that the food industry is manipulating the American public in ways that are similar to the tobacco industry. He believes that they promote foods that are high in salt, sugar and fat -- a deadly combination that does not satisfy the appetite, but actually stimulates hunger.

Dr. Kessler has degrees in medicine and law, and has served as dean of the Yale University School of Medicine as well as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he was known for taking a tough stand on tobacco companies. Today, he is the author of a new book, "The End of Overeating."

"I used to think I ate to feel full," said Dr. Kessler, who admitted to having his own weight-related struggles. "Now we have the science that shows were eating to stimulate ourselves."

Dr. Kessler said he believes that foods that are high in salt, fat, and sugar actually alter brain chemistry in the same ways that addictive drugs do. The sight or thought of such foods can stimulate dopamine in the pleasure centers of the brain. For this reason, you can crave these foods when you pass a restaurant or see a food advertisement on television even if you are not hungry.

Dr. Kessler says that food deprivation only heightens the way the brain views food, which is why most diets do not work.

"How do we explain to America what is going on?" he asked. "How do we break through and help people understand how their brains have been captured?"

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A study that was conducted at the University of Michigan found that children who can't practice delayed gratification are more likely to gain weight. This was true whether their lack of control was related to food or toys.

[In the study] children were asked to choose candy, animal crackers, or pretzels as their preferred food, and [were] left alone with two plates of different quantities of the food. Children were told that they would be allowed to eat a larger quantity of the chosen food if they waited until the examiner returned. (Source: EmaxHealth)

Forty-seven percent of the children who participated in the study were unable to wait for the examiner to return - and those who displayed a limited ability to wait were 29 percent more likely to be overweight as they got older.

Researchers pointed to their findings as proof that parents need to teach the benefits of delayed gratification and model this behavior themselves.

Labels: overeating, self-control, overweight children, studies

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A University of Toronto nutritionist has found that children who ate their lunches in front of a television set consumed 228 more calories than those who ate without such a distraction.

Dr. Harvey Anderson, an expert on childhood obesity, believes that eating while watching TV interferes with the body's natural ability to know when to stop eating. According to his report, which was funded and released by the Canadian Institute for Health Research, "mindless television produces mindless eating."

Labels: overeating, TV, mindless_eating

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Insisting that your child "cleans his plate" may lead to his overeating, according to a study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Researchers from Cornell University studied 63 preschoolers in daycare settings. The ones whose parents enforced a "clean plate" rule were more likely to ask for seconds.

"Parents who insist children clean their plates may be asserting excess control," said Dr. Brian Wansink, author of the study. "They could unknowingly be inhibiting the development of the child's self-control around food."

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Does your social status affect your weight? If you're a monkey, it might.

Researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, found that female rhesus monkeys that were lowest in status tended to choose high-calorie foods when offered them. Socially dominant females did not.

Dr. Mark Wilson, chief of the Division of Psychobiology, believes that low-status females may be using high-calorie foods to relieve stress. Their eating choices resulted in weight gain and the increased production of hormones such as cortisol. They also developed more belly fat, which is associated with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome in humans.

Labels: overeating, society, pressures

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In what could be a breakthrough study, British researchers have concluded that children are overweight because they overeat, not because they don't get enough exercise. Once children are overweight, they will tend to exercise less. The conclusion of the research is that overeating causes overweight and lack of exercise follows once a child is too heavy.

The study has implications for public policy, because the British government has been increasing the number of minutes students have for physical education.

"More activity does not lead to weight loss," said Professor Terence Wilkin, one of the authors of the study.

Dr. Wilkin and his colleagues at Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth tracked 200 children from age seven to ten years old. The children wore devices to measure their physical activity. If a child was 10% fatter than average at age seven, he reduced his physical activity by an average four minutes a day by age ten.

"Our findings suggest that rather than giving children ever increasing doses of physical activity, we should first question the basic paradigm that more physical activity leads to less fat," according to the study published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
 

Labels: overeating, causes of childhood obesity, exercise

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