Tag Archives: weight

Study On How Family Meals Changed During Pandemic Reveals Parent’s Thoughts on Fast Food

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Whether it be a positive or negative change, how and what families eat has been affected by the pandemic.

A study from the University of Michigan that surveyed 2,000 parents with at least one child between 3 and 18 years old found that about 50% of parents reported their family ate home-cooked meals more often during the pandemic while 20% said their family at more fast food during the pandemic.

Kids who consumed fast food at least twice weekly were more common in low-income families (less than $50,000 annually). Parents with lower incomes were more likely to have stated they thought their child or children were overweight than those with higher incomes (more than $100,000 yearly).

Many experts believe that the data available demonstrates that consuming fast food on a regular basis predisposes kids to gain unwanted weight.

According to the study, most parents agreed that fast food was more expensive than cooking at home and less healthy for their children. Furthermore, they mostly agreed that fast food was not a good value for the money. Despite this, 72% of parents agree that when time is an issue fast food is a good option for their family. 82% of parents reported that they thought fast food was fine in moderation.

Most parents agreed that fast food is unhealthy for their children, more expensive than making meals at home and not good value for the money spent. Still, 72% of parents thought that when pressed for time, fast food is a good family option, and 84% thought fast food was fine in moderation.

Study authors stated that they message they are receiving from parents via the data that cooking at home is time-consuming and complicated and that heavily processed (fast) food is the solution. Study authors also noted that as humans are creatures of habit, the more often we order take out or fast food the more uncomfortable and difficult to get out a pot to boil water for a simple dish of pasta and veggies.

 

 

 

Weight and Exercise

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If you are fighting being overweight, exercise alone is not the answer. There was a recent study by the American Diabetes Association done with mice. They had running wheels in their cages but they would lock them for several days at a time. What they found was interesting.

When the wheels were locked, the mice roamed around the cage expending energy through walking around. When the wheels were then unlocked, they would run the wheel, but decreased expending their energy off the wheel.

Let’s equate that to us. When we exercise at a gym, on a treadmill, take a walk or however we get our spurts of exercise, do we tend to sit around more because we “got our exercise in” rather than keep the momentum going?

Do we tend to eat more when we do more vigorous exercise thinking you can because you exercised? We may need to take a step back and look at what we are doing with exercise and eating regimen.

New Study Links Childhood Eating Habits to Adult Obesity

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A new 17-year study of more than nine thousand British children born in the 1990’s suggests that those who ate more ultra-processed food are more likely to be overweight as adults.

The researchers also found that with foods like frozen pizzas, soda pop, mass-produced bread or frozen meals—the ultra processed foods—made up a very high portion of the children’s diets, more than 60% of their caloric intake on average.

One important thing the researchers uncovered is the dose-response relationship. This means that it isn’t just that eating any ultra-processed foods was bad for the children but the more they ate the more problems multiplied.

Industrial processed foods are modified to change all kinds of things like consistency, taste, color or shelf life but also to make them taste better, make them cheaper and more convenient. All of these processes are things that don’t happen in home-cooked meals. Industrial processed foods may be energy dense but tend to be have little nutritional density.

They often have high levels of sugar, saturated fats and salt but low levels of protein, fiber, and micronutrients. And typically, the worst foods are the most aggressively marketed.

New Study Suggests “Heavy but Healthy” is a Myth for Heart Health

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A new study has examined the relationship between weight, physical activity, and cardiovascular health.

According to this new research regular exercise cannot offset negative effects of excess body weight on heart health. Giving pause to the idea that one can be heavy and completely healthy.

The study was published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology.

This new study contradicts previous studies which found that physical activity could help counter the effects of extra body weight on the heart. The study stated that being heavy but healthy equates approximately to being thin and unhealthy when it comes to the cardiovascular system.

The author of the study worries that recent prioritization of physical activity overweight loss is a dangerous road for many patients to go down. They believe their data shows that the opposite is true.

The study examined over fifty thousand Spanish adults and found that physical activity was important for everyone to maintain cardiovascular health but that weight is still a factor.

Interesting Question

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Are you heavier or shorter than the average American?

A new government report looked at average weight, height, waist circumference, and body mass index (BMI) of adults 1999-2000 through 2015-2016.

Weight:
In 1999-2000, men averaged 189 pounds and women averaged just over 163 pounds. By 2015-2016, men averaged just under 198 while women averaged just over 170.

Height:
In 1999-2000, men averaged 69.2 inches and women averaged 63.8 inches. In 2015-2016 men avearaged 69.0 inches and women averaged 63.6 inches.

Waist Circumference:
In 1999-2000 men averaged 38.8 inches around the waist while women averaged 36.3 inches. In 2015-2016 men averaged 40.2 while women averaged 38.7 inches.

BMI:
In 1999-2000 men averaged a BMI of 27.7; women averaged 28.2. In 2015-2016 men averaged 29.1 while women went to 29.6. For reference, underweight BMI is less than 18.5; normal ranges from 18.5-24.9; overweight is 25-29.9; obese is 30 or more.

So the question is where do you fall in all this? Are you concerned enough to do something about it?

Read the full study here
More about BMI