Date Published:
10 December 2008 |
Overweight children may inherit faster eating behaviour
OVERWEIGHT children may inherit faster eating behaviour according to a Cancer
Research UK study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition today.
Researchers from Cancer Research UK's Health Behaviour Research Centre at University
College London (UCL) filmed 254 twin children aged 10-12 eating a standard meal
in their homes to test whether their speed of eating was related to the amount
of fat they carried and whether eating rate was a heritable characteristic.
The results indicated that the children's eating rate was partly influenced
by their genes, and that a faster eating rate was linked to a higher body weight
in general, and with overweight twins eating the fastest, and eating more in
a sitting.
Previous experiments have confirmed that faster eating is linked to eating
more, but studies making the direct link between a faster eating rate and higher
body weight have produced mixed findings.
Children were divided into three weight groups to compare eating rate within
the normal range as well as between obese and normal groups. The groups were:
obese-overweight, higher-normal weight and lower-normal weight.
The researchers found that the overweight group ate significantly more than
the other two groups. The overweight group ate the fastest at 4.3 bites per
minute, followed by the higher-normal weight group which ate on average 4.1
bites per minute. The lower-normal weight group ate slowest at 3.8 bites per
minute.
These findings may interest health professionals who could encourage children
to slow their eating speed, to play a role in reducing their risk of becoming
overweight.
It is estimated that currently more than 13,000 cases of cancer in the UK could
be avoided each year if everyone maintained a healthy body weight.
Research has shown that obesity increases the risk of breast cancer, bowel
cancer, womb cancer, kidney cancer and food pipe cancer. Obesity has also been
linked to increased risk of other cancers including gallbladder cancer, liver
cancer, ovarian cancer and cancer of the pancreas, but more research is needed
to confirm this.
Lead author, Professor Jane Wardle, said:
"This twin study suggests that children who eat faster inherit this
trait and that it is a worrying risk factor for weight gain, which could potentially
be modified in childhood.
If eating rate can be modified, and if it results in consumption of less
food, then early promotion of slower eating for all children could lower the
average population weight and help to control current obesity trends."
Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK's director of health information, said:
"This is interesting research that adds to our understanding of
the causes of childhood obesity, an increasingly common and health threatening
issue. But parents concerned about their children’s weight should also
consider the type of food being consumed as well as how fast their children
eat it.
Eating lots of burgers, chips and cakes more slowly will not solve the
problem on its own. Children should be encouraged to eat a wide variety of
vegetables and fruit while limiting the sugar, fat and salt in their diets."
Cancer Research UK
Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is
to beat cancer.
*
Cancer Research UK carries out world-class research to improve
understanding of the disease and find out how to prevent, diagnose and treat
different kinds
of cancer.
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of all cancer patients.
* Cancer Research UK helps people to understand cancer, the progress that is
being made and the choices each person can make.
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impact in the global fight against cancer.
For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how
to support the charity, please call 020 7009 8820 or visit their website (link
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in the article above are not necessarily those of IvyRose Ltd.. Material in
this news item was released by Cancer Research UK on 8
December 2008 and may have been edited (e.g. in
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