My oldest child has always been a great eater. She’s very active and has a big appetite. She’s willing to try new foods (within reason) and is always asking when the next meal or snack is being served. She’s a healthy eater (although she does have a sweet tooth like her mama), and is happy to snack on carrots or tomatoes if she’s hungry and dinner isn’t ready yet. I give my kids reasonable portions and encourage them to ask for more if they want it, because I hate to waste food and don’t want to force them to continue eating if they aren’t hungry just to clean their plates. I’m hopeful that the way I’m teaching my kids to eat will help them avoid weight problems later in life. I want them to develop a healthy relationship with food and not have to worry about “diets”. We are big snackers in my house, so I was happy to see results of a new study regarding snacking and weight gain in young girls. The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that girls who eat more frequently gained less weight over the next 10 years, compared to those who ate less often. When the girls were 9-10 years old, they filled out food logs for a few days at a time. Researchers compared the number of meals and snacks they ate with changes in their weight and size over the next 10 years. They found that the less meals and snacks girls reported eating, the more weight they tended to gain. “Over the ten years, those who started out eating more than six times a day climbed 6.5 points on the body mass index (BMI) scale, which is a measure of weight in relation to height. Girls that ate three times or less went up 7.8 points. That works out to about eight extra pounds gained by the least-frequent eaters.” This study did not look at exactly what girls were eating, and researchers agree that more studies are needed to determine whether or not eating more often can actually help shed weight. But it makes sense that eating more frequently helps prevent binges since you’re never going too long between meals. Looking for healthy snacks your kids will enjoy? Check out 25 After-School Snack Ideas and Snacking Healthy. What do you think? |
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