Stuffing Chips - © Michael Moss - Salt Sugar Fat Book

Large Volume, Variety Of Snacks Makes Kids Eat More

Dr. Obvious says he couldn’t believe his tired old eyes when he saw a recent report on junk food and kids’ eating habits. Seems someone apparently decided to perform a ‘scientific’ study on the effects of offering children a large variety and volume of snack foods. Bet you can already guess what they found…

Fat Parent Fat kid - © Frank Siteman - Science FactionThe responsibility for developing healthy eating habits in the young should
be placed where it belongs – with their first and foremost role models.

Researchers at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia wanted to see how the offer of a large variety and volume of snack foods effected the behaviour of children. Traditionally, parents have been expected to limit the availability and scope of junk foods in their kids’ diets to teach the little ones not to overindulge, leading to obesity. Sounds simple to me. And it places the responsibility for developing healthy eating habits in the young where it belongs – with their first and foremost role models.

What they did

For the study, participants ate during a 15-minute snack break between 20 other health assessments at the Child Health CheckPoint, which looked at the health of 1800 children, aged 11-12 years, and their parents across a variety of factors from physical activity to sleep.

The children and parents were given a snack box containing non-perishable items such as Crackers, Cheese, a Muesli Bar, Biscuits, a tub of Peaches and Chocolate.

The quantity/number and variety of snack food items and the container sizes that the food was presented in varied. Children and parents ate separately and at different times.

Researchers recorded how much food each child and parent left in the box uneaten, and calculated the total grams and kilojoules (energy) consumed.

What they found

“Children who were offered more snack items consumed considerably more energy and a slightly higher food mass. Manipulating box/container size had little effect on consumption,” said study Lead Researcher Dr Jessica Kerr.

The impact on adults was only slight, but Kerr said the adults were more aware that they were being observed, and this may have impacted their eating behaviour.

The takeaway

“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,” Kerr suggested.

Dr. Obvious’ takeaway

“Of course you limit the variety and especially the volume of Salty, Sugary Processed Snack foods your kids can get their hands on!” Dr. Obvious slapped his knee, coughing on his own laughter. “Do Millennial parents not get this? Apparently not.”

He was also skeptical about the kind of parents the study dealt with: “I’d love to know how many of the parents were overweight or obese and, therefore, already offering an obvious bad example to their kids.”

My take

I’d love to have seen results from a control group in which the parents and kids snacked together, to determine whether the little ones emulated their parents’ choices in snacks – when they knew their parents were watching. I’d also like to see the results of a study in which kids were allowed to choose between ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ snacks. We’re constantly being told that the Millennials and those coming after them are influencing grocery marketing practices and sales by demanding more ‘healthy’, fresh foods. Is that attitude trickling down to their kids?

But mostly, I’d like to know how old the researchers who thought up this study were, and what their own experience in child rearing has been. Anyone who’s looked after kids for any length of time – even just an afternoon – could predict the results of their endeavor!

~ Maggie J.