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Children eat well, if told: Study

A study conducted on children from middle-class families going to two private schools in Delhi showed they respond to education on nutrition and lifestyle improvement.

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Educating children on nutrition and lifestyle can help in improving their eating habits and practices besides preventing obesity and diabetes at a later stage.

A study conducted on children from middle-class families going to two private schools in Delhi showed they respond to education on nutrition and lifestyle improvement. They stop eating junk food and give up unhealthy eating habits, if counselled properly.

Giving up junk food brings beneficial changes in anthropometric and biochemical profiles of Indian adolescents and prevents obesity and diabetes among them at a later stage.

The study, published in the latest edition of European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was conducted by Dr N Singhal, Anoop Misra, P Shah, and S Gulati from Centre for Diabetes, Obesity and Cholestrol Disorders, Diabetes Foundation of India and Department of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases Fortis Hospital, respectively.

Indians have a genetic predisposition to develop central obesity and insulin resistance syndrome (the metabolic syndrome) which is further compounded by inappropriate dietary habits and physical inactivity.

The authors said that 50-80% of obese children tend to become obese adults with a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardio-vascular diseases (CVD). Adults who were obese children have an increased risk of morbidity and mortality independent of their adult weight.

“To prevent morbidities in Indians during the most productive years of their lives, it is important that intervention strategies be targetted to children and adolescents,” the authors said.

During the study, 192 students of class 11 from two schools with same socio-economic strata were picked up. Students of one school (intervention group) were educated about nutrition-related knowledge, attitude, lifestyle practices, food frequency, etc.

After a six-month follow-up, significant improvement in several
domains of knowledge was observed in the intervention group children as compared to the other school.

In the intervention group, significantly lower proportion of children consumed aerated drinks (15.1%), and energy-dense unhealthy foods (8.9%) and brought packed lunch and fruits to school (30.7%) compared to the other school.

The intervention group also had a decrease in mean waist circumference, sagittal abdominal diameter and waist-to-hip ratio.

The intervention group was given lectures on the importance of each food for health, difference between simple and complex carbohydrates, concept of empty calories and its sources, importance of fibre in diet, sources of protein in the diet, harmful effects of consuming deep-fried food, high-calorie Indian junk food and the importance of eating vegetables and nuts.

Information on healthy cooking practices was also shared. In addition, knowledge of lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes, CVD and hypertension was provided to them.

The children were encouraged to participate in physical activity periods in school every week for at least 30 minutes. They were informed of ways by which physical activity can be improved at home.

This included less television viewing, increased involvement in household chores and using walking as a means of travel to nearby destinations. Individual counselling for children was held by trained nutritionists.

The school canteen menu was changed to healthier alternatives and the sale of aerated drinks, burgers, bread pakodas and noodles were stopped. Healthy food providing satiety such as rajma-chawal, kadi-chawal, idli-sambar and brown bread cucumber sandwiches were made available.

After 10 weeks of lectures and information dissemination, it was found that children in the intervention group were involved in planning their own tiffin, daily diet and listing healthy alternatives to high-calorie junk foods.

Significantly, higher proportion of intervention children (32.8%) consumed two glasses of milk everyday compared to 7.8% in the other school.

The intervention school students also increased intake of fresh fruits (43 times per week) and consumed less white bread, aerated drinks and energy-dense unhealthy foods such as burgers, pizzas and French fries.

They also engaged in physical activity at least 4 days a week for at least 30-60 minutes. There was also reduction in the proportion of intervention children eating at school canteen, whereas no significant change was seen in the second school.

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