BACKGROUND With other factors such as general diet and insufficient exercise, eating non-nutrient dense snack foods such as potato chips contributes to childhood obesity. We examined whether children consumed fewer calories when offered high-nutrient dense snacks consisting of cheese and vegetables than children who were offered non-nutrient dense snacks (ie, potato chips). METHODS Two hundre...

Intakes of micronutrient-rich foods are low among Indian women of reproductive age. We investigated whether consumption of a food-based micronutrient-rich snack increased markers of blood micronutrient concentrations when compared with a control snack. Non-pregnant women (n 222) aged 14-35 years living in a Mumbai slum were randomised to receive a treatment snack (containing green leafy vegetab...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Maintaining blood glucose within homeostatic limits and eating foods that sup-press hunger and promote satiety have beneficial impacts for health. This study investigated the glycaemic re-sponse and satiety effects of a serving size of a healthier snack bar, branded Nothing Else, that met the required nutrient profiling score criteria for a health claim, in comparison ...

OBJECTIVE Health advocates have focused on the prevalence of advertising for calorie-dense low-nutrient foods as a significant contributor to the obesity epidemic. This research tests the hypothesis that exposure to food advertising during TV viewing may also contribute to obesity by triggering automatic snacking of available food. DESIGN In Experiments 1a and 1b, elementary-school-age childr...

OBJECTIVE To describe meal and snack patterns of infants and toddlers. DESIGN A cross-sectional telephone survey in which mothers reported their infants' and toddlers' food and beverage intakes for a 24-hour period. SUBJECTS Subjects included 3,022 infants and toddlers, ages 4 to 24 months, in the Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study. STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED Means+/-standard deviatio...

OBJECTIVE This study assessed the impact of changes in school food policy on student lunch consumption in middle schools. METHODS Two years of lunch food records were collected from students at three middle schools in the Houston, Texas area. During the first year, no changes occurred in the school food environment. After that school year was completed, chips and dessert foods were removed fr...

INTRODUCTION The Smart Snacks in Schools interim final rule was promulgated by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as authorized by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (PL 111-296) and implementation commenced beginning July 1, 2014; however, in the years leading up to this deadline, national studies suggested that most schools were far from meeting the USDA standards. Evidence to gui...

BACKGROUND Children's food choices are guided by their preferences. However, these preferences may change due to repeated exposure. METHODS This study investigated children's (n = 242, 7-12 yrs-old) liking and wanting for snacks over 3 weeks of daily consumption. The snacks differed in size (small vs large) or flavour (sweet vs sweet-sour). Two conditions were designed: 1) a monotonous group ...

BACKGROUND Snacking is likely to play an important role in the development of overweight and obesity, yet little is known about the contexts of snacking in adolescents or how snacking may influence other dietary habits, like meal skipping. This study examines the contexts in which adolescents snack and whether these contexts are associated with demographic characteristics of adolescents and wit...