Peanut butter to Combat Obesity
Children who eat a snack of peanuts each day have a lower risk of being overweight or obese, a new study has revealed.
A recent experiment discovered that snacking on peanut butter or peanuts up to four times a week could help to combat obesity.
The 12-week study (conducted by the University of Houston Department of Health and Human Performance, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Woman’s University) involved Hispanic children aged 11-13 at risk of being overweight or obese.
Dr Craig Johnston, an assistant professor at the University of Houston, said: “Obesity is the most pressing health issue facing us today. We’d like to think it’s preventable, but from where I sit right now, there hasn’t been a lot shown to be very effective on a large scale.”
Researchers monitored a group of Hispanic middle-school children, at high risk for being overweight or obese. They acknowledged that snacking is more common during the adolescent years and that the unhealthy eating habit can lead to an unhealthy weight.
This is especially true if a student doesn’t have access to other meals during the school day, they noted.
“We have a lot of kids skipping meals for a whole bunch of reasons,” Dr Johnston said. “What we found is that kids get home from school around 4 pm. There’s less supervision by parents and less structure. Kids are sitting down at the TV and eating, eating, eating because they really didn’t eat at school.”
According to The Health Site, it was found that those who followed an eating plan that included a snack of peanuts or peanut butter three to four times a week reduced their Body Mass Index, compared to those who had the snack less than once a week.
The researchers conclude that afterschool programs and schools can replace energy dense, unhealthy snacks with peanuts to provide a healthier alternative for children.The findings of the study were published in the Journal of Applied Research on Children.
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