Whole grain and cereal fiber intake among children at high risk for obesity

Obesity is a growing problem worldwide. Today, obesity is a more common cause of death than underweight and the prevalence increases. The energy intake has a crucial impact when it comes to developing overweight and obesity. It is important to establish a healthy relationship to food intake in early...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Andersson, Karolina
Formato: First cycle, G2E
Lenguaje:sueco
Inglés
Publicado: 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/8487/
Descripción
Sumario:Obesity is a growing problem worldwide. Today, obesity is a more common cause of death than underweight and the prevalence increases. The energy intake has a crucial impact when it comes to developing overweight and obesity. It is important to establish a healthy relationship to food intake in early age since food preferences are created early. Whole grains and dietary fiber have shown to reduce the risk of many diseases associated with obesity, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and some forms of cancer. Whole grain may also have an effect on weight gain. It is important to prevent obesity. Most of the obese adults were obese as youngsters and most of the obese youngsters were obese as children too. Obesity is associated with severe consequences particularly is childhood obesity associated with an increased risk of premature death. Many factors affect the obesity risk among children. Both inherited genes and surrounding environment have a great impact. A randomized controlled trial named Early STOPP (Stockholm Obesity Prevention Program) was initiated to find out if it is possible to implement healthier lifestyle in children with an increased risk of obesity. The families taking part of the intervention get contin-uously coaching during five years, in contrast to families belonging to the control group. Food diaries belonging to the children (3 years of age) taking part in Early STOPP were analyzed in the present study. The total cereal fiber and whole grain intake was estimated to be 5.4 respectively 16.8 g/day. No significant differences in cereal fiber or whole grain intake between the groups were seen. Neither were any significant variance between BMI and intake seen. The results are only based on the situation at 3 years of age. It would have been interesting to look at the develop-ment between year 1 and year 3 regarding change in whole grain intake, cereal fiber intake and BMI. Even if whole grains have not been shown to decrease body weight, an increased intake of whole grain is recommended due to the association with decreased risk of a number of diseases associated with obesity.