NEW NHLBI-SPONSORED STUDY SHOWS PROGRAMS CAN TEACH
CHILDREN TO EAT HEALTHIER
FAMILY INVOLVEMENT AND ACCESS TO HEALTHY FOODS ARE KEY, SAY RESEARCHERS
Parents, take heart: You can teach your child to eat
healthier. A study of preadolescent children found that those
who attended a behaviorally
oriented nutrition education program and were taught to follow
a diet low in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol adopted significantly
better dietary habits over several years compared to their peers
who received only general nutritional information.
The study showed that after three years, children in the intervention
group consumed more than 67 percent of their total calories on
average from heart-healthy foods, compared to less than 57 percent
for children
in the usual care group.
The results, published in the June issue of Pediatrics,
are from a new ancillary study of the Dietary Intervention Study
in Children
(DISC). Scientists reviewed dietary recalls from 595 children who
were ages 8 to 10 and who had high blood cholesterol levels at
the start of the study. The researchers analyzed dietary information
by food groups and measured adherence to recommended food patterns
and changes over time.
“
These new findings offer valuable lessons for finding effective ways
to help children develop healthier eating habits – a critical
need in light of the rising rates of obesity and related conditions
among children,” said Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD, director of
the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which sponsored
the study. NHLBI is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The study provides glimpses of real-world eating behavior and
reveals the challenges of trying to eat a healthy diet in a fast-paced
world. For example, the study documents a long-suspected phenomenon
of modern
society: approximately one-third of the total daily calories consumed
by the children in both groups came from snack foods, desserts,
and pizza.
The main DISC trial is the first long-term clinical trial of
the effects of a fat-reduced dietary intervention on growing children.
Over the seven years of the original study, children who adopted
a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet decreased their intake of total
fat, saturated fat and cholesterol within the first year of the
study
and maintained lower levels for several more years. Those selected
for the intervention group participated in a nutrition education
program which included a behavioral component to promote healthier
eating. Parents of the children in the intervention group participated
in a similar program. Researchers previously reported that the
dietary changes made by children in the intervention group did
not adversely
affect the children’s nutritional status, growth, or development.
In the latest analysis, researchers analyzed the dietary recalls
collected over three days at the beginning of the study and again
after three years. They found that the dairy food group and the
desserts/snacks/pizza group had the greatest impact on the children’s body mass index
(BMI) and their levels of LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol.
Girls and boys who consumed more dairy products were more likely
to have a lower BMI. In addition, boys who consumed more desserts,
snacks, and pizza were more likely to have higher BMI and LDL levels.
Specific foods within each food group were also classified based
on the ingredients or preparation methods as either “Whoa” foods – those
that were high in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol – or
heart-healthy “Go” foods – those that were low
in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol.
Compared to baseline, after three years, children in the intervention
group consumed more of the “Go” food choices in all of
the food groups except fruit, and they consumed fewer of the “Whoa” food
choices with one exception: pizza. They also consumed on average
slightly fewer snacks and desserts after three years compared to
the usual care group. In addition, children in the intervention group
chose more “Go” versions of desserts (such as lowfat
frozen yogurt, gelatin or angel food cake) and more “Go” versions
of pizza (such as those made with lowfat cheese) compared to those
in the usual care group. However, the authors note, children in
both groups ate fewer than recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. The intervention group’s greater consumption of total daily
calories from “Go” foods shows that children and their
families can be taught to improve children’s diets, according
to Linda Van Horn, PhD, RD, professor of preventive medicine at
Northwestern University, lead author of the study.
“
You can raise a child to enjoy healthy eating and to be selective
about food choices. Habits developed in childhood will hopefully
last throughout their lives,” said Van Horn. “With the
right guidance and nutrition education, children learn to prefer
healthy foods such as carrots and raisins or cereal as snacks, for
example. We could really help improve both the nutritional quality
and energy balance of our children’s diets by teaching them
to make healthy food choices at an early age.”
Eva Obarzanek, PhD, RD, NHLBI nutritionist and DISC project officer,
agrees that most children could benefit from healthier eating patterns
like those followed by DISC participants. “DISC has shown that
following a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol is safe for
children in this age group – and a heart-healthy diet can lower
blood cholesterol levels,” she noted.
Lower levels of LDL cholesterol are known to reduce the risk
for heart disease. Obarzanek added, “It’s never too early
to start protecting your heart – or your child’s heart.”
Studies have shown that atherosclerosis, or hardening of the
arteries – the
leading cause of heart disease -- begins in childhood. The National
Cholesterol Education Program recommends that children over the
age of about 2 years, as well as all adults, adopt a heart-healthy
eating
pattern to reduce their risk of developing heart disease as adults.
Children and adults can also lower their risk by maintaining a
healthy weight and by being physically active.
Parents and others play an important role in shaping their children’s
dietary habits. “In addition to being strong advocates for
their children by helping them learn to make good food choices, parents
and other adults need to take responsibility for ensuring that children
have access to healthy foods at home, at school, and at sporting
or recreational events,” Van Horn added. “For example,
when it’s your turn to bring the snack for the kids on the
soccer team, instead of chips or candy, how about having orange slices
and strawberries instead? Children can learn to say ‘no thanks’ to
a sugar-sweetened soda and to request water or skim milk instead,
but those foods have to be available to them.”
The six DISC clinical center sites were Kaiser Foundation Research
Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Louisiana State University,
New Jersey Medical College, Northwestern University, and the University
of Iowa. The coordinating center was the Maryland Medical Research
Institute.
To help families adopt healthier lifestyles, NIH launched today
a new national public education program targeting parents and caregivers
of children ages 8 to 13. Developed by NHLBI and promoted in collaboration
with several other NIH institutes, national health and youth organizations,
and community-based groups, We Can! (Ways to Enhance
Children’s
Activity & Nutrition!) provides resources to encourage healthy
eating, increase physical activity, and reduce sedentary time. The
program offers a parents’ handbook in Spanish and English
as well as a new six-lesson curriculum for parents and tested curricula
for children through community-based sites. A new online resource
provides parents, caregivers, communities, national partners, and
media up-to-date health information and tips on maintaining a healthy
weight for families. For more information, visit http://wecan.nhlbi.nih.gov or call toll-free 866-35-WE CAN (866-359-3226).
To interview an NHLBI expert, please contact the NHLBI Communications
Office at (301) 496-4236 or e-mail at nhlbi_news@nhlbi.nih.gov.
To interview Dr. Van Horn, please
contact Elizabeth Crown, 312-503-8928 or e-crown@northwestern.edu.
NHLBI is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the
Federal Government's primary agency for biomedical and behavioral
research. NIH is a component of
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Additional information
about cardiovascular disease and other NHLBI-supported research
and educational programs
are available online at the NHLBI Website, www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
NOTE TO MEDIA: See companion release in separate distribution: “HHS
Secretary Leavitt, NIH Director Tell Parents: Together, ‘We Can!’ Prevent
Childhood Obesity.” |