Study: Eating slower reduced obesity in children
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Both eating speed and portion size are factors in child obesity. CC photo: redjar
Swedish researchers found that modifying eating behavior with use of a computerized feedback device facilitated weight loss in obese adolescents.
The study’s objective was to determine whether or not the instrument modified eating behavior in overweight children. The study is published this month in the British Medical Journal.
Investigators at the Karolinska Instutute in Stockholm recruited 106 obese young people, aged 9-17, who had been referred to a hospital based obesity clinic in England for the study.
The study was carried out over 12 months and supervised by Professor Julian Hamilton-Shield. All of the children were encouraged to exercise for at least one hour a day and to follow a balanced diet defined by the British Food Standards Agency. Half of the children used a Mandometer whilst eating and the other half ate without one.
The Mandometer, a computerized weight scale placed under a plate, measures and provides real-time feedback on eating speed. It was developed by a research team at Karolinska Instutute, led by Professor Per Södersen, to help reduce eating speed, known to increase the likelihood of obesity, by indicating the correct speed at which meals should be eaten in order to minimize the risk of putting on weight.
It warns its users when they are eating too fast, or too slow, for food to be absorbed correctly.
Another of its key functions is to determine when the person eating has eaten enough for his or her nutritional needs based on information on specific eating habits provided to a nutritionist. That information is programmed into the Mandometer and appears as a calculated optimal norm on the accompanying screen.
“Childhood obesity is increasing almost universally with little evidence to support any specific treatment programme,” wrote the study authors.
Results showed that all children in the study were eating too quickly at the beginning of the study, but one year later those participants using the Mandometer were eating 11 percent more slowly, compared to 4 percent in the group not using the device. More importantly, it was noticed that body mass index (BMI), body fat, metabolic status and portion size parameters had all changed in a way which led to weight loss.
The improved eating patterns and continued weight loss were maintained for at least six months after the children had stopped using the Mandometer, suggesting that use of the device had a long-term effect on their eating habits. Another positive result was that those in the Mandometer group demonstrated amelioration in the concentration of their high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.
The researchers conclude that “Retraining eating behaviour with a feedback device is a useful adjunct to standard lifestyle modification in treating obesity among adolescents.”
A short video showing Mandometer training is available at this web site.
Source:
Treatment of childhood obesity by retraining eating behaviour: randomised controlled trial, BMJ 2009;340:b5388
doi:10.1136/bmj.b5388
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I could eat a whole swiss roll in one go, or, as I once did to win a bet, eat twelve weetabix and a litre of milk. It's a good job my metabolism means I never put on weight, because I would have been enormous that's for sure!
:)
I figured out long ago on my own, using nothing but brain power, that by eating more slowly I ate less and stayed full longer. For me, it also aids digestion not to pummel the stomach with an avalanche of food thrust into it.
It they had really wanted to test the theory, they should have had a third group that only used the glutton-meter and left exercise out of the equation. I think they might have discovered that slowing the consumption rate and eating less would have in itself caused weight loss.
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