Beyond-brand effect of television food advertisements on food choice in children: The effects of weight status

Copyright © The Authors 2007.Objective - To investigate the effect of television food advertising on children’s food intake, specifically whether childhood obesity is related to a greater susceptibility to food promotion. Design - The study was a within-subject, counterbalanced design. The children were tested on two occasions separated by two weeks. One condition involved the children viewing food advertisements followed by a cartoon, in the other condition the children viewed non-food adverts followed by the same cartoon. Following the cartoon, their food intake and choice was assessed in a standard paradigm. Setting - The study was conducted in Liverpool, UK. Subjects - Fifty-nine children (32 male, 27 female) aged 9–11 years were recruited from a UK school to participate in the study. Thirty-three children were normal-weight (NW), 15 overweight (OW) and 11 obese (OB). Results - Exposure to food adverts produced substantial and significant increases in energy intake in all children (P < 0·001). The increase in intake was largest in the obese children (P = 0·04). All children increased their consumption of high-fat and/or sweet energy-dense snacks in response to the adverts (P < 0·001). In the food advert condition, total intake and the intake of these specific snack items correlated with the children’s modified age- and gender-specific body mass index score. Conclusions - These data suggest that obese and overweight children are indeed more responsive to food promotion, which specifically stimulates the intake of energy-dense snacks.University of Liverpoo

When does food refusal require professional intervention?

Food refusal can have the potential to lead to nutritional deficiencies, which increases the risk of a variety of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Deciding when food refusal requires professional intervention is complicated by the fact that there is a natural and appropriate stage in a child's development that is characterised by increased levels of rejection of both previously accepted and novel food items. Therefore, choosing to intervene is difficult, which if handled badly can lead to further food refusal and an even more limited diet. Food refusal is often based on individual preferences; however, it can also be defined through pathological behaviours that require psychological intervention. This paper presents and discusses several different types of food refusal behaviours; these are learningdependent, those that are related to a medical complication, selective food refusal, fear-based food refusal and appetiteawareness-autonomy-based food refusal. This paper describes the behaviours and characteristics that are often associated with each; however, emphasis is placed on the possibility that these different types of food refusal can often be co-morbid. The decision to offer professional intervention to the child and their family should be a holistic process based on the level of medical or psychological distress resulting from the food refusal

Psychological and educational interventions for childhood constipation

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To evaluate the efficacy of psychological and educational intervention programmes used for functional constipation in children

Feeding disorders of infancy or early childood: A review / Trastornos del la ingestión alimentaria de la infancia o la niñez: Una revisión

Abstract Feeding disorders of infancy or early childhood are a common presenting problem at health clinics. However, they are often mistaken with eating disorders, such as Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa, in spite of remaining as different diagnostic categories in both the DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10. Children’s feeding disorders are also understudied in comparison with eating disorders. The lack of a clear definition of feeding disorders, the diversity in prevalence figures and the challenges in the classification of these disorders affects the identification of feeding disorders in the clinical practice. This article aims to review the available literature in order to contribute to a better understanding of feeding disorders of infancy or early childhood. Key words: Feeding Disorders of Infancy or Early Childhood, Review, Classification. Resumen Los Trastornos de la Ingestión Alimentaria de la Infancia o la niñez (TIAI) son de común presentación en las consultas de profesionales de la salud. Sin embargo, a menudo son confundidos con los Trastornos de la Conducta Alimentaria (TCA), Anorexia Nerviosa y Bulimia Nervosa,  aunque estos permanecen como entidades diagnósticas separadas tanto en el DSM-IV-TR como en el ICD-10. En comparación con los TCA y con otros trastornos del comportamiento infanto-juvenil, los TIAI están escasamente investigados. Los términos utilizados para su descripción, la diversidad en la prevalencia, y las dificultades en la clasificación, afectan la identificación de estos problemas en la práctica clínica. Por ello, este artículo tiene como objetivo el repasar la literatura disponible sobre estos trastornos para así contribuir a una mejora en el entendimiento de los TIAIs. Palabras clave: Trastornos de la Ingestión Alimentaria de la Infancia o la Niñez, Revisión, Clasificación.          

Psychobehavioral characteristics of competitive bodybuilders : a longitudinal stud

Competitive bodybuilding is associated with the development of eating pathology, poor social functioning, heightened anxiety, and pathological exercise regimes. This longitudinal study examined competitive bodybuilders (CBs) to assess the severity and temporal stability of these variables during the course of a competitive bodybuilding season. At six time-points throughout the 10-month testing phase, 78 participants in three equal age matched groups of CBs, recreational weight trainers, and non-exercisers, completed validated measures of eating and exercise behaviors, quality of social functioning, and anxiety symptomatology. Selfreport inventories were completed for five consecutive months during competition preparation, and one month after completion of the competitive season. Pre-competition, CBs reported increased disordered eating and a greater commitment to exercise. Post-competition, the intensity of behaviors decreased to baseline levels. No between group differences emerged in the perceived quality of social functioning and levels of anxiety. The findings suggest that the behavioral strategies of CBs are cyclical. Consequently, conclusions drawn from cross-sectional data inferring temporally coherent impaired psychosocial functioning and eating disorder symptomatology may produce false-positives. Therefore, contextual and temporal factors are important research considerations when assessing the psychobehaviors of CBs

A guide to analysing Universal Eating Monitor data: Assessing the impact of different analysis techniques

Cumulative intake curves and within-meal changes in subjective feelings of fullness can provide researchers with detailed data on the effects of psychological, nutritional or pharmacological manipulations on the expression of human appetite. However, a number of different approaches to the collection and analysis of within-meal data exist resulting in potential to produce contrasting findings. The current study measured cumulative intake and change in appetite using a Universal Eating Monitor (UEM). Three different techniques (area under the curve, visual ascription, and a coefficient approach) were used to analyse the same cumulative intake curves produced in a study of stress on food intake. Twenty-three adult participants (mean age 21 years) consumed ameal comprised of pasta and marinara sauce and, with the aid of the Sussex Meal Pattern Monitor (SMPM), were periodically interrupted to measure subjective feelings of fullness. As hypothesised, analysing cumulative intake curves with differing techniques affected the overall study findings. No significant betweencondition differences in the cumulative intake or fullness curves were found using either the visual ascription or the area under the curve approaches. In contrast, the coefficient approach found a significant difference in the fullness curves between relaxation and cold pressor conditions (p=0.012). This discrepancy in findingswas due to the presence of a quadratic component in the cumulative intake curve in the stress condition whichwas not present in control (p=0.017). Whilst the relative merits of various approaches to microstructural analysis of eating behaviour remain to be fully evaluated, the case for some form of standardised analytic approach may need to be addressed