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| Family style meals may help in obesity battle
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Passing bowls around and allowing children to serve themselves may help prevent childhood obesity according to new research from the University of Illinois.
The researchers showed that when children and early childhood education and care providers sit around a table together at mealtime, passing bowls and serving themselves, children learn to recognise when they are full better than they do when food is pre-plated for them.
The University of Illinois study looked at the feeding practices of two- to five-year-old children in 118 child-care centers.
"Family-style meals give kids a chance to learn about things like portion size and food preferences. When foods are pre-plated, children never develop the ability to read their body's hunger cues. They don't learn to say, okay, this is an appropriate portion size for me," said lead author and director of the University of Illinois Child Development Laboratory Brent McBride.
According to Mr McBride one in four preschool children is overweight or obese, and more than 12 million preschoolers consume up to five meals or snacks daily in American child care centers.
To combat the problem of child obesity in 2011 US Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics issued a number of guidelines to help early childhood education and care providers. The University of Illinois research is the first to look at how well care providers are doing against the Academy's guidelines.
The Academy recommends that providers eat with children so they can model healthy behaviour and says that teachers should not pressure children to eat more than they want.
University of Illinois Nutritional Sciences graduate Dipti A. Dev said providers need to help children recognise their feelings of hunger and fullness.
"Instead of asking: "Are you done?" teachers should ask children, "Are you full?" Or they should say, "If you're hungry, you can have some more." Asking the right questions can help children listen to their hunger and satiety signals," she said.
Ms Dev also said that if children don't want to eat providers shouldn't urge them to eat out of concern the kids may get hungry before the next meal or snack is served.
"If a child doesn't eat at one meal, s/he'll compensate for it over a 24-hour period. Making kids eat when they're not hungry is probably the worst thing you can do. It teaches them not to pay attention to their body's signals," she said.
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