15 percent fewer calories – but only for the children

Less calorie intake with transparent labeling

Scientists working with Pooja Tandon from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute in Washington State have now shown in an experiment that transparent calorie labeling of fast food products alone leads to less consumption. The study was published in the journal “Pediatrics”. The scientists selected a total of 99 parents of three to six-year-old children as test subjects at a children’s clinic. The condition was that they ate in fast food restaurants occasionally and understood English. All panelists were given McDonald’s restaurant menus with pictures and prices of the products. Parents should choose one meal for themselves and one for their children.

15 percent fewer calories – but only for the children

The scientists had divided the test subjects into two groups of equal size. One of them received menus that also contained the calories for each product. The result: The parents who received this information selected food for their children that contained around 567 kilocalories on average, 102 less than the food that the parents in the other group selected (around 671 kilocalories on average). This corresponded to a reduction of around 15 percent.

Calorie labeling necessary

Remarkably, there was no difference in the average calorie content of the meals that the parents of both groups ordered for themselves. The researchers also found no association between the amount of calories in meals for parents or children and the frequency with which families went to fast-food restaurants. The scientists see their result as evidence of the need for calorie labeling. “Even avoiding small amounts of calories, if done regularly, can prevent weight gain and contribute to better health,” Tandon said. “Just 100 kilocalories extra per day can mean a weight gain of almost five kilograms over the year,” said Tandon.

In the fight against obesity in children and adolescents, British researchers have tested a new type of scale that controls the eating speed: if the portions on the plate are devoured too quickly, the so-called mandometer sounds its warning voice. When it comes to weight loss, the scales are definitely an additional help, emphasize the scientists at the University of Bristol and the children’s hospital there in a new study.

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Scales measure the pace of eating

For their study, the scientists followed the efforts of 106 overweight minors to lose weight for 18 months. Some of the nine to 17 year olds followed the normal therapy consisting of healthy, low-fat food and more exercise. As an additional control, the other test persons were given the mandometer developed by the Swedish Karolinska Institute under the plate: the scale connected to a computer measures the eating pace and shows this on a monitor with a curve, while another curve shows the ideal eating pace . If the two curves deviate too much, a voice warns you to eat more slowly.

Good accompanying measure during treatment

All participants had a body mass index (BMI) of at least 30 and were therefore considered obese according to the medical definition. After a year, the group with the speedometers were able to reduce their BMI by an average of 2.1 points – about three times as much as the rest of the participants. This result was confirmed after another six months. In addition, the subjects in the mandometer group had their eating speed reduced by eleven percent, while it had increased by four percent in the control group. At the same time, the control eaters reduced their portion sizes and showed better “good cholesterol” values.arguementative topics The scale is a suitable companion measure when treating overweight minors. However, it does not replace the usual therapy consisting of physical exercise and nutritional education.

Special therapies can help fat children lose weight and reduce the risk of heart disease. This is the result of a study by the University of Ulm, which was presented at the European Cardiology Congress in Munich. Another study presented there by the University of Leipzig shows that students can significantly improve their fitness by taking one hour of physical education per day. More than 25,000 heart specialists take part in the congress.

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German children are too fat

According to surveys by the Robert Koch Institute, 1.1 million children and young people between the ages of three and 17 in Germany are overweight, and another 800,000 suffer from obesity. The 1916 study initiated by the Federal Center for Health Education in Ulm involved overweight children and adolescents between the ages of eight and 16. 55 percent of them were able to lose weight through the therapy.

Supervised weight loss promises success

Ulrike Hoffmeister from Ulm University reported that children who were cared for in inpatient rehabilitation facilities dropped more pounds than patients in outpatient facilities. The girls and boys were prescribed a diet during therapy, received psychological support and took part in nutritional training and exercise programs. This also made it possible to reduce risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.

Sports study was successful

For the study on physical education, 333 children from eleven classes in the sixth grade were examined. Five classes kept the regular physical education lessons of two hours per week, six classes received an additional physical education lesson daily for a school year. The girls and boys with more physical education were clearly fitter than their classmates after the study.

Two-year-old healthy girls weigh about eight pounds. Fang Sija from China weighed an impressive 46 kilos – almost four times the normal weight. Because doctors from the University of Shanghai developed a special diet for her, Fang Sija was able to lose an incredible 16 kilos.

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Gain two pounds of weight every month

When children weigh 46 kilos at the age of two, this is not hidden from the neighborhood either. Fang Sija from Taocun in China was only called Pang Ya, fat girl. The parents had to watch helplessly as their daughter put on two kilograms every month and got bigger and bigger. Because she was too fat, she was even denied a place in kindergarten, says her mother Zhang Chunmi.

Bacterial imbalance

Neither the parents nor the doctors could explain the weight gain. Too much, too fatty or sweet food could be excluded as the cause of the obesity, because the girl’s parents are poor farmers. It was not until the media reported about Fang Sija that doctors from Shanghai University Hospital became aware of her. They suspected a bacterial imbalance in the intestines that could be treated with a special diet.

Good prospects

Fang Sija spent six months in the hospital. When she was released, even her parents hardly recognized her. Her daughter had lost over 16 kilos thanks to the diet specially developed for her. The doctors are hopeful that one day Fang Sija will lead a normal life.

Children with low self-esteem are at greater risk of developing obesity in adulthood. British scientists have now found out. In the 1970s, a study (British Birth Cohort Study) examined 6,500 children under the age of ten; a second examination was done when the people were 30 years old.

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Adolescents with low self-esteem

According to the BBC, it has been shown that quite a few of those subjects who had low self-esteem as adolescents gained more weight than other subjects in the following 20 years. This relationship was more clearly observed in women than in boys. The researchers from King’s College London point out that at the time it was not about children with mental disorders or fears, but only about adolescents with little self-confidence.

Emotional aspects are risk factors

Professor David Collier, head of the research, explains that obesity has previously been viewed as a physical process. However, the study showed that emotional aspects also play a role as risk factors. However, other factors such as childhood diet and parent weight are also important. But if children were helped to develop a healthy self-esteem, this could have a positive effect on weight in adulthood, according to the experts. The scientists published their results in the specialist magazine ‘BMC Medicine’.

The procedure is irreversible: Doctors make the stomach of extremely overweight people smaller if no diet helps. Now surgeons have even attempted the procedure on adolescents with diabetes – with success. A year later, they no longer needed blood sugar medication.

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Obese teenagers benefit from stomach reduction

When radical diet, nutritional advice and exercise no longer help, surgeons sometimes advise obese people to undergo surgery: the stomach is made smaller and part of the small intestine bypassed. Patients can eat less because of the reduced capacity and the body only consumes part of the food because the entire intestine cannot work. For adults, the so-called bypass surgery is already part of the routine in many clinics, while it is the exception for young people. Nevertheless, young people who are extremely overweight seem to benefit from the measure, as US surgeons now report in the journal “Pediatrics”.

Diabetes is the main reason for intervention

The doctors operated on eleven teenagers at five different clinics in the United States. The body mass index (BMI) of the patients averaged 50 – people with a BMI between 18.5 and 23 are considered to be of normal weight. Their metabolism was already severely disturbed: They suffered from diabetes, had high blood lipids and high blood pressure. Blood sugar disease in particular was an important reason for the surgeons to opt for the procedure despite the young age of their patients.

OP shows success

As Thomas Inge from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital reports, ten of the eleven adolescents benefited from the procedure: After a year, their BMI had fallen to 33 and the metabolic disorder had decreased significantly. The insulin concentration had fallen by 81 percent, the fasting blood sugar by 41 percent. They no longer needed diabetes medication, and blood lipid levels and blood pressure were also lower.

Inferior results when treated with medication

The researchers also looked at 67 obese adolescents with diabetes who did not have an operation but swallowed medication. The comparison group fared significantly worse: Neither the sugar nor the insulin concentration nor the blood pressure had changed.

Intervention not without risks

The authors conclude from their research that gastric bypass can help extremely obese young patients. However, they are reluctant to recommend them because the operation carries risks: Because the stomach is greatly reduced in size, some of the food reaches the small intestine undigested. Patients react with dizziness and nausea, and there is a threat of hypoglycaemia. In addition, only part of the food ingested is absorbed, which can lead to a lack of vitamins and calcium.

Overweight mothers often have fat daughters and obese fathers tend to have obese sons – but not the other way around. Obviously, children seem to copy the eating habits of the same-sex parent. This is what a new British study from Plymouth’s Peninsula Medical School says. “It is unlikely that this gender-specific result has genetic causes,” say the researchers. They now hope to be able to fight obesity more effectively.

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41 percent of the girls got fat

The team of scientists examined 226 families for three years. It found that 41 percent of eight-year-old daughters of overweight mothers also got fat, compared to 4 percent of fat girls who had normal-weight mothers. On the other hand, the eating behavior of the mothers did not seem to have any effect on the sons.

Boys orientate themselves on father’s corpulence

There is also a clear connection between fathers and sons: 18 percent of the boys of obese fathers also became overweight – compared to three percent of the fat sons whose fathers were of normal weight. Girls, on the other hand, were not influenced by it.

Bring parents into focus

“We should start with the parents,” said the head of the study, Professor Terry Wilkin, to the British broadcaster BBC. So far it has been assumed that obese children also become fat adults. That is why all attempts to get over obesity started with the eating behavior of children and adolescents. The current study shows, however, that eight out of ten overweight adults in childhood were by no means fat./p