Val Wadas-Willingham
CNN Health
22 April, 2013
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/22/pushing-kids-to-eat-may-cause-obesity-later/
Summary:
We've all heard the phrase, "clean your plate," from our parents. However, recent data collected by investigators from studies conducted by the EAT and the F-EAT suggest otherwise. After examining 2,800 middle and high school students in Minnesota, investigators found that 50-60% of parents require their children to finish all the food on their plate and 30-40% encourage their children to finish their food even after the children have stated they are full. This parental pressure to finish the food has been shown to increase obesity and cause kids to be unhealthy. Because this behavior forces kids to eat more than they can handle and cause to to respond naturally to their hunger, kids are becoming more unhealthy. Also, restricting foods has also been proven to have a negative effect. Since parents don't give the restricted food to their children very often, this causes children to over eat whenever they are allowed to have the treat. In conclusion, this article tells parents that they should teach their kids to eat in moderation and make the right food choices rather than forcing them to eat only a certain type of food or forcing them to "clean their plate."
Connection:
This article relates to our study of the circulatory system. Obesity and being overweight is a major cause of high blood pressure, hypertension, and increased plaque build up in the arteries leading to a condition known as atherosclerosis. This condition can lead to heart attack or myocardial infarction in which case blood flow to the heart is severely or completely blocked causing heart muscles to die and the flow of blood throughout the body to slow. This in turn leads to the cells throughout our body to have a lack of nutrients and oxygen.
How does this teaching of kids affect them when they are eating away from the house when their parents aren't there? Do they still eat as much?
ReplyDeleteDid the researchers in the Minnesota schools find that a higher percentage of the kids who were required to "clean their plate" were obese?
ReplyDeleteAccording to researchers who conducted this study, parents who put strict restrictions on certain types of food cause their children to over-eat when they are allowed to eat that certain type of food because they have such a huge craving for it. So for example, if a child who has restrictions on eating cookies were to go to a friend's house and they were serving cookies there, because there is no parental pressure and because he has a huge craving for cookies, he is going to over-eat. Parents who let their kids eat in moderation wouldn't necessarily have this problem because the child is not over-eating while fulfilling his/her craving.
ReplyDeleteAidan, I'm not exactly sure because the article didn't state that information but what they did find is that these types of behaviors are common in both parents of overweight kids and healthy kids
ReplyDelete