The truth about snacks and obesity.

Harvard Study: Snack Foods And Soda Not Linked To Obesity

From the rhetoric coming out of last weekend's obesity-lawsuit-pushing Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) conference in Boston, you'd think snack foods and soft drinks were the number one cause of childhood obesity. But the sue-first-ask-questions-later food cops and trial lawyers apparently didn't bother to consult researchers across town at Harvard, who last week provided the latest evidence that snack foods and soda are not a cause of childhood obesity.
After studying at more than 14,000 American children, a team of six Harvard doctors found that snack food and soda do not contribute to childhood obesity. The study, which was published in the October issue of the International Journal of Obesity, concluded: "[O]ur data did not offer support for the hypothesis that snacking promotes weight gain." Earlier this year, researchers at Penn State reported substantially the same thing. They found "no statistically significant relationship between the percentage of calories from ice cream, baked goods, candy or chips and BMI [Body Mass Index] score" for adolescent girls.

The Harvard research specifically contests what is perhaps public-health activists' most cited study -- a 2001 paper by fat-tax advocate David Ludwig, which claimed that soda consumption is a major factor in childhood obesity. After referring to Ludwig's conclusion, the Harvard study reports:


[T]he inclusion of sugar-sweetened beverages in the snack food category did not meaningfully change the results. Regardless of the definition of snack foods, there was not a strong association between intake of snack foods and weight gain.
There is good reason to believe the recent Harvard report over Ludwig's. With only 548 children to study (versus Harvard's 14,000), Ludwig admits that his study had "limited statistical power."
The new Harvard study helps reinforce the growing understanding that physical activity, not food, is the primary cause of childhood obesity. According to former FDA Comissioner Dr. Mark McClellan: "In a debate in which foods themselves are being held to be largely responsible for increasing levels of obesity, actual levels of caloric intake among the young haven't appreciably changed over the last twenty years."

A growing body of research corroborates McClellan's point. Earlier this year, research published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that "insufficient vigorous physical activity was the only risk factor" for overweight children. And a 2003 study in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine summed it all up by recommending "a focus on increasing energy expenditure, rather than reducing caloric intake."

Hilton.....

You tryin' to say "JUNK FOOD" ain't good for ya??????

good read Hilton....

i'm hungry..somebody pass the honey buns and mountain dew.

He must have a gov job.

It may not make you fat, but it will give you a mouth full of rotten teeth.

i teach middle school and our PE coach was testing body fat percentages on kids at our school. there were some kids whose body fat percentage was almost HALF their weight!!! unbelievable. BTW--PE, which used to be required for all kids when i was growing up, isn't a requirement at all at the middle school level in georgia. all anyone in education cares about is the needs improvement list and AYP--adequate yearly progress. as long as a kid's making AYP, they could care less if he or she's as big as the school.

when i was growing up, as soon as i got home from school i did my homework then i was out the door till dark either playing war in the woods (back before all the toy guns were painted blaze orange for "safety" reasons), pick up football/basketball games, riding and fixing up our bikes, anything outside and active. kids don't do that these days. the internet, video games, cable TV, and other "luxury items" are their best friends.

I aint no harvard grad but i can tell ya they dont know what the heck they are talkin about you cant tell me a kid can eat lildebbies and drink cokes all day and stay slim let me change that not all kids but a child that is born heavy like myself cant eat like that and loose weight now my 2 boys are skinney and they can eat all day long and dont gain weight no more than normall when i quit eating sweets then ill lose weight when i eat them ill gain weight and now i need to quit eating them but i been big all my life except for when i diet then i get bigger than i was before the diet so the less you eat the less you will weigh it dont take a harverd grad to figure that out.

Common sense tells you that calorie intake must be proportionate to physical activity.
Fewer calories+adequate exercise=weight loss and/or muscular/cardio conditioning

HT2 said:

You tryin' to say "JUNK FOOD" ain't good for ya??????

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The report siad eat all you want. But you better exercise.

Its like anything else. Kinda like when One group says coffee is bad, the next says its ok. So what do you do. Eat in moderation and exercise. That is Biblical by the way.

One thing I do know. Sex is Good. That is based on experience.

hpurvis said:

One thing I do know. Sex is Good. That is based on experience.

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Did you come to that conclusion based on a study involving 14,000 participants?!?! :speechles


I teach high school, and I am amazed at the diets of some of my students. I do understand that their metabolism is running at about 6000 RPMs, but some kids stuff THREE candy bars down their throat during morning break and wash them down with a Coke! Our lunch room serves pizza as an option every day, and some kids eat pizza every day! When I was in high school, I never had that option. (I also had to drink 2 % milk at lunch every day even if Beefaroni was on the menu whereas the lunch room now sells bottled drinks like Fruitopia!) Like mpowell said, these diets are going to pack the fat on kids if they don't get out from in front of the TV and get more involved with physical activities.