Children eating more, and more frequently outside the home

July 25, 2011 in Health

As childhood obesity rises and the American diet shifts towards increasing consumption of foods eaten or prepared outside of the home, concerns about the nutritional quality and the total consumption of such foods are also increasing. According to a study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and published in the August 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, eating location and food source significantly impact daily energy intake for children. Foods prepared away from home, including fast food eaten at home and store-prepared food eaten away from home, are fueling the increase in total calorie intake.

Trends in energy intake by eating location have not been examined previously and therefore this study is unique because of its focus on foods consumed away from home as well as foods prepared away from home. The location/source categories showing the greatest increase in percent of kcal/day from 1994 to 2006 were fast food eaten at home and store-bought food eaten away from home. The increase in store-bought foods eaten away from home likely represents an increase in store-prepared foods, and this is a previously unidentified and un-quantified new source of calories prepared away from home.

Researchers also found that the percentage of calories from fast food has increased to surpass intake from schools and has become the largest contributor to foods prepared away from home for all . For foods eaten away from home, the percentage of kcal/day from stores increased to become the largest source of calories eaten away from home. Fast food eaten at home and store-bought food eaten away from home increased significantly.

"Overall, this study highlights the continuing rapid shifts in the sources of food for children in the US—both where it's eaten and where it's prepared," commented Barry M. Popkin, PhD, Professor of Nutrition, UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "These results underscore the need to deepen our understanding of food preparation and consumption patterns, and further pinpoint where research and programmatic activity should focus. The differences in energy intake by eating location revealed in this analysis demonstrate that eating location is an important factor in the diet of American children. Further studies of children's diet focusing on energy intake and by eating location are warranted, particularly for store-purchased food overall, carry-out or drive-thru , and hot-and-ready vs. home-prepared foods….By determining the importance of both where children eat and where their food is prepared, this study helps elucidate where children are obtaining their calories. Because of the increased energy intake and lower nutritional quality associated with away-from-home prepared foods, such insight can be used to focus future efforts to reduce and improve dietary quality for American children."

The study determined that increased energy intake (+179 kcal/day) by children from 1977-2006 was associated with a major increase in calories eaten away from home (+255 kcal/day). The percentage of calories eaten away from home increased from 23.4% to 33.9% from 1977-2006.

More information: The article is "Trends in energy intake among US children by eating location and food source, 1977-2006" by Jennifer M. Poti and Barry M. Popkin, PhD. It appears in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 111, Issue 8 (August 2011).

Provided by Elsevier Health Sciences

not rated yet  

Rank not rated yet
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Aggressive behavior linked specifically to secondhand smoke exposure in childhood

Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to physically aggressive and antisocial, regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history ...

Health created 1 hour ago | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Most elite athletes believe doping substances are effective in improving performance

Most elite athletes consider doping substances "are effective" in improving performance, while recognising that they constitute cheating, can endanger health and entail the obvious risk of sanction. At the same time, the ...

Health created 2 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New rice contamination reported in China

Authorities are investigating rice mills in southern China following tests that found almost half of the staple grain in one of the country's largest cities was contaminated with a toxic metal.

Health created 5 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Warning images for cigarette packs do not make a strong enough emotional impact

The warning images Brussels proposes to include on tobacco packages in order to reduce consumption do not make the desired impact on smokers because they only find some of them really unpleasant. So, if the ...

Health created 6 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Cancer and birth defects in Iraq: The nuclear legacy

Ten years after the Iraq war of 2003 a team of scientists based in Mosul, northern Iraq, have detected high levels of uranium contamination in soil samples at three sites in the province of Nineveh which, coupled with dramatically ...

Health created 6 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0


B vitamins could delay dementia

(Medical Xpress)—Despite spending billions of dollars on research and development, drug companies have been unable to come up with effective treatments for dementia and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Now, A. ...

Drugs found to both prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease in mice

Researchers at USC have found that a class of pharmaceuticals can both prevent and treat Alzheimer's Disease in mice.

Enrichment therapy effective among children with autism, study finds

Children with autism showed significant improvement after six months of simple sensory exercises at home using everyday items such as scents, spoons and sponges, according to UC Irvine neurobiologists.

Poliovirus vaccine trial shows early promise for recurrent glioblastoma

An attack on glioblastoma brain tumor cells that uses a modified poliovirus is showing encouraging results in an early study to establish the proper dose level, researchers at Duke Cancer Institute report.

'Doctor shopping' by obese patients negatively affects health

Overweight and obese patients are significantly more likely than their normal-weight counterparts to repeatedly switch primary care doctors, a practice that disrupts continuity of care and leads to more emergency room visits, ...

Decisions to forgo life support may depend heavily on the ICU where patients are treated

The decision to limit life support in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) appears to be significantly influenced by physician practices and/or the culture of the hospital, suggests new findings from researchers at the ...