Kids twice as likely to eat healthy after watching cooking shows with healthy food

Television programs featuring healthy foods can be a key ingredient in leading children to make healthier food choices now and into adulthood.

A new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, found kids who watched a child-oriented cooking show featuring healthy food were 2.7 times more likely to make a healthy food choice than those who watched a different episode of the same show featuring unhealthy food.

Researchers asked 125 10- to 12-year-olds, with parental consent, at five schools in the Netherlands to watch 10 minutes of a Dutch public television cooking program designed for children, and then offered them a snack as a reward for participating. Children who watched the healthy program were far more likely to choose one of the healthy snack options -- an apple or a few pieces of cucumber -- than one of the unhealthy options -- a handful of chips or a handful of salted mini-pretzels.

"The findings from this study indicate cooking programs can be a promising tool for promoting positive changes in children's food-related preferences, attitudes, and behaviors," said lead author Frans Folkvord, PhD, of Tilburg University,Tilburg, Netherlands.

This study was conducted at the children's schools, which could represent a promising alternative for children learning healthy eating behaviors. Prior research has found youth are more likely to eat nutrient-rich foods including fruits and vegetables if they were involved in preparing the dish, but modern reliance on ready-prepared foods and a lack of modeling by parents in preparing fresh foods have led to a drop-in cooking skills among kids.

"Providing nutritional education in school environments instead may have an important positive influence on the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors of children," Dr. Folkvord said.

This study indicates the visual prominence of healthier options in both food choice and portion size on TV cooking programs leads young viewers to crave those healthier choices then act on those cravings.

The effect that exposure to healthier options has on children is strongly influenced by personality traits. For example, children who don't like new foods are less likely to show a stronger desire for healthier choices after watching a TV program featuring healthier foods than a child who does enjoy trying new foods. As they grow older, though, they start to feel more responsible for their eating habits and can fall back on information they learned as children. Researchers believe this may indicate watching programs with healthier options can still have a positive impact on children's behavior, even if it is delayed by age.

"Schools represent the most effective and efficient way to reach a large section of an important target population, which includes children as well as school staff and the wider community," Dr. Folkvord commented. "Positive peer and teacher modeling can encourage students to try new foods for which they exhibited distaste previously."

Poor dietary habits during childhood and adolescence have multiple negative effects on several health and wellness indicators, including achievement and maintenance of healthy weights, growth and development patterns, and dental health.

"The likelihood of consuming fruits and vegetables among youth and adults is strongly related to knowing how to prepare most fruits and vegetables. Increased cooking skills among children can positively influence their consumption of fruit and vegetables in a manner that will persist into adulthood," Dr. Folkvord added.

Date: January 3, 2020

Source: Elsevier

Holiday celebrations often revolve around eating, but for those with food restrictions, that can produce an incongruous feeling when dining with friends and loved ones: loneliness.

People with restricted diets -- due to allergies, health issues or religious or cultural norms -- are more likely to feel lonely when they can't share in what others are eating, new Cornell University research shows.

"Despite being physically present with others, having a food restriction leaves people feeling left out because they are not able to take part in bonding over the meal," said Kaitlin Woolley, assistant professor of marketing in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and lead author of the research.

Across seven studies and controlled experiments, researchers found that food restrictions predicted loneliness among both children and adults.

The research also offers the first evidence, Woolley said, that having a food restriction causes increased loneliness. For example, in one experiment, assigning unrestricted individuals to experience a food restriction increased reported feelings of loneliness. That suggests such feelings are not driven by non-food issues or limited to picky eaters, Woolley said.

"We can strip that away and show that assigning someone to a restriction or not can have implications for their feeling of inclusion in the group meal," she said.

Further evidence came from a survey of observers of the Jewish holiday of Passover. When reminded during the holiday of the leavened foods they couldn't enjoy with others, participants' loneliness increased. Yet, within their own similarly restricted group, they felt a stronger bond.

Bonding over meals is an inherently social experience, Woolley notes. In previous research, she found that strangers felt more connected and trusting of each other when they shared the same food, and eating food from the same plate increased cooperation between strangers.

But when restricted from sharing in the meal, people suffer "food worries," Woolley said. They fret about what they can eat and how others might judge them for not fitting in.

Those worries generated a degree of loneliness comparable to that reported by unmarried or low-income adults, and stronger than that experienced by schoolchildren who were not native English speakers, according to the research. Compared with non-restricted individuals, having a restriction increased reported loneliness by 19%. People felt lonelier regardless of how severe their restriction was, or whether their restriction was imposed or voluntary.

The study concluded that food restrictions and loneliness are on the rise and "may be related epidemics," warranting further research.

To date, Woolley said, children have been the primary focus of research on the effects of food restrictions. A nationally representative survey she analyzed from the Centers for Disease Control did not track the issue among adults.

But increasingly, she said, food restrictions are being carried into adulthood, or adults are choosing restricted diets such as gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan for health or ethical reasons. Up to 30% of all participants in her research deal with restrictions, Woolley said.

"This is a problem that I don't think people are quite aware of," she said, "and that has implications for people's ability to connect with others over eating."

Unhealthy habits can start young: Infants, toddlers, and added sugars

A new study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, published by Elsevier, found that nearly two-thirds of infants (61 percent) and almost all toddlers (98 percent) consumed added sugars in their average daily diets, primarily in the form of flavored yogurts (infants) and fruit drinks (toddlers). Infants were 6-11 months, and toddlers were 12-23 months.

The analysis documented some good news in the decline over the study period (2005-6 and 2015-16) in the percentage of infants and toddlers whose daily diets include added sugars, as well as the amounts they consumed. Yet the widespread intake points to a serious and persistent problem: the early development of eating patterns associated with negative health conditions.

"Our study, which is the first to look at trends in added sugars consumption by infants and toddlers, documents that most infants and toddlers consume added sugars. This has important public health implications since previous research has shown that eating patterns established early in life shape later eating patterns," explained lead investigator Kirsten A. Herrick, PhD, MSc, Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, MD, USA. She cited an earlier study that found that 6-year-olds who had consumed any sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) before the age of one were more than twice as likely to consume an SSB at least once a day compared to 6-year-olds who had not consumed any before the age of one.

Dr. Herrick noted, "Previous research into the diets of children over two years old associated sugar consumption with the development of cavities, asthma, obesity, elevated blood pressure and altered lipid profiles."

Health organizations in the United States promulgate guidelines that recommend limiting sugar intake to 9 tsp or less for adult men, and 6 tsp or less for adult women and children between 2 and 19. With no comparable research available for infants and toddlers prior to this study, only one organization, the American Heart Association, provided any guidance for children under age 2. "Our study's findings about infant and toddler diets should raise awareness among health organizations and practitioners and inform future guidelines and recommendations," she added.

The investigators analyzed data for 1,211 infants and toddlers (6-23 months) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2016, a nationally representative study conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They used the Food Patterns Equivalents Database and the United States Department of Agriculture's What We Eat In America's list to categorize foods. Sugars contained in breast milk and formula were not included in the consumption estimates.

The results showed that infants consumed about 1 teaspoon (tsp) of added sugars daily (equivalent to about 2 percent of their daily caloric intake), while toddlers consumed about 6 tsp of sugars (about 8 percent of their daily caloric intake). No differences were detected in added sugars consumption by sex, family income level, and head-of-household, but there were some distinctions by race/Hispanic origin: non-Hispanic Asian toddlers consumed the fewest added sugars (3.7 tsp) and non-Hispanic black toddlers consumed the most added sugars (8.2 tsp). The top food sources of added sugars for infants included yogurt, baby snacks and sweets, and sweet bakery products. For toddlers, the top sources included fruit drinks, sweet baked products, and sugar and candy.

According to Dr. Herrick, parents should be mindful of added sugars levels in the foods chosen when weaning their infants. "The transition from a milk-based diet (breast milk and formula) to table foods has an impact on nutrition, taste preference, and eating patterns. More work is needed to understand this critical period." She recommends discussing which solid foods to introduce during weaning with a child's healthcare provider and pointed to the Nutrition Facts label as another resource to support informed decisions. While the federal requirement to include added sugars content of a food or beverages on the Nutrition Facts label is not mandatory until January 2020, many labels already include this information.

In September 2019, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics joined the American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and the American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend breast milk, infant formula, water, and plain milk as part of a new set of comprehensive beverage recommendations for children, outlined by age (birth through age 5). They caution against beverages that are sources of added sugars in young children's diets, including flavored milks (e.g., chocolate, strawberry) and sugar- and low-calorie sweetened beverages, in addition to a wide variety of beverages that are on the market and targeted to children that provide no unique nutritional value.

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Materials provided by Elsevier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Shortage of Gulf Oysters Threatens Southern Culinary Heritage

In Louisiana, normally the nation’s largest oyster-producing state, months of severe weather have caused shortages of the beloved bivalve. According to The New York Times, flooding along the Mississippi River—swollen by Midwestern rain and snow throughout the spring and summer—overwhelmed coastal marshes, lakes, and bays with freshwater, and killed oysters by the millions.

Oysters, which have been cheap and abundant in the Gulf Coast region for centuries, are central to the area’s restaurant and cooking culture.

As the Times reports, shortages and soaring prices have led some Gulf Coast raw bars to replace local oysters with ones from other regions, though many are reluctant to do so, in large part due to regional pride.

“I have nothing against those other oysters,” explained Steve Pettus, a managing partner of the restaurant group Dickie Brennan & Company, which owns Bourbon House in New Orleans, “but they’re not ours.”

And the situation, experts warn, is only getting worse. And the fact that oysters take two to three years to reach market size means that it could take years for Gulf oysters to rebound.

Losses reported so far for this season are already so severe “that we’re likely to not remain the largest oyster producer in the United States,” Patrick Banks, an assistant secretary in the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, told the Times.

In fact, in September, the United States Department of Commerce determined that Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi were suffering “a catastrophic regional fishery disaster,” making businesses in those states eligible for federal assistance.

There is concern that if the higher prices persist Gulf oysters could become a luxury item unavailable to the average diner.

“Oysters are just becoming unaffordable,” Tommy Cvitanovich, the owner of Drago’s, told the paper. “People need to start thinking about another dressing for their turkeys.”

Avocados May Help Manage Obesity, Prevent Diabetes

 

Your guacamole may hold the key to managing obesity and helping delay or prevent diabetes, according to a new study by a University of Guelph research team.

For the first time, researchers led by Prof. Paul Spagnuolo have shown how a compound found only in avocados can inhibit cellular processes that normally lead to diabetes. In safety testing in humans, the team also found that the substance was absorbed into the blood with no adverse effects in the kidney, liver or muscle.

The study was recently published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.

About one in four Canadians is obese, a chronic condition that is a leading cause of Type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance in diabetic patients means their bodies are unable to properly remove glucose from the blood.

Those complications can arise when mitochondria, or the energy powerhouses in the body's cells, are unable to burn fatty acids completely.

Normally, fatty acid oxidation allows the body to burn fats. Obesity or diabetes hinders that process, leading to incomplete oxidation.

 

The U of G researchers discovered that avocatin B (AvoB), a fat molecule found only in avocados, counters incomplete oxidation in skeletal muscle and the pancreas to reduce insulin resistance.

In their study, the team fed mice high-fat diets for eight weeks to induce obesity and insulin resistance. For the next five weeks, they added AvoB to the high-fat diets of half of the mice.

The treated mice weighed significantly less than those in the control group, showing slower weight gain. More important, said Spagnuolo, the treated mice showed greater insulin sensitivity, meaning that their bodies were able to absorb and burn blood glucose and improve their response to insulin.

In a human clinical study, AvoB given as a dietary supplement to participants eating a typical western diet was absorbed safely into their blood without affecting the kidney, liver or skeletal muscle. The team also saw reductions in weight in human subjects, although Spagnuolo said the result was not statistically significant.

Having demonstrated its safety in humans, they plan to conduct clinical trials to test AvoB's efficacy in treating metabolic ailments in people.

Spagnuolo said the safety trial helped the team to determine just how much AvoB to include in the supplement formulation.

 

Having received Health Canada approval for the compound as a human supplement, he will begin selling it in powder and pill forms as soon as 2020 through SP Nutraceuticals Inc., a Burlington, Ont.-based natural health products company.

He said eating avocados alone would likely be ineffective, as the amount of natural avocatin B varies widely in the fruit and we still do not fully understand exactly how it is digested and absorbed when we consume a whole avocado.

Although avocados have been touted as a weight-loss food, Spagnuolo said more study is needed. He said a healthy diet and exercise are recommended to prevent metabolic disorders leading to obesity or diabetes.

PhD student Nawaz Ahmed, lead author of the paper, said, "We advocate healthy eating and exercise as solutions to the problem, but that's difficult for some people. We've known this for decades, and obesity and diabetes are still a significant health problem."

In earlier work funded by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Spagnuolo has studied the potential use of avocatin B for treating acute myeloid leukemia.

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Materials provided by University of Guelph. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.