Last month’s IN THE NEWS highlighted a study published in the British Medical Journal Online First which suggested that those who eat quickly treble their risk of being overweight. Scientists involved in the study believe that the modern manner of eating on the go – and until absolutely full – is a significant factor in the current obesity epidemic because it overrides signals in the brain which normally encourage a little more self control. Now a study of British youngsters by Cancer Research UK, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that teaching children to savour their food will not only help them manage their weight but also help combat cancer.

In the study scientists set about videoing more than 120 sets of twins between the ages of 10 and 12 as they ate sandwiches and fruit salad. They worked out how many bites a minute the children took and compared this with their weight. Fastest eaters were the overweight children, at 4.3 bites a minute; next came those on the heavy side of normal with 4.1 bites a minute. The thinnest youngsters took only 3.8 bites a minute. Although the researchers acknowledged that genes influence our eating rates they came to the conclusion that the faster children eat the more overweight they tend to be and the higher the risk of cancer. As obesity raises the risk of at least five forms of cancer, something as simple as teaching children to eat slowly could have a huge impact on public health.

 

Great dietary gurus of centuries ago stressed the importance of eating slowly and chewing food for a long time and as this study makes clear, this message is even more important today not just for busy adults who bolt down their food, but also for children.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 1st, 2009 at 3:40 am and is filed under Cancer, Children's Health, In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.