Hispanic middle school children at high risk of being overweigh tor obese reduced their body mass index (BMI) when eating a snack of peanuts at school, compared to children who did not, accoridng to a recent study.
The new information is based on 12-weeks of research conducted by researchers from the University of Houston's department of Health and Human Performance (HHP), Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Woman's University.
"Obesity is the most pressing health issue facing us today," Craig Johnston, HHP assistant professor, said. "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."
Snacking appears to be more common during adolescence, and can lead to an unhealthy habit resulting in weight gain now and later in life. Researchers found this was particularly true depending on if students did not have access to other meals during the school day.
The study involved close to 260 Latino adolescents from three Houston-area charter schools who were involved in a program for physical activity and nutritional education. Close to half of the students received a snack of peanuts or peanut butter about three to four times a week, while the others in the study received the snack only once a week. The snack was administered after school as students were boarding the school bus to go home. Peanuts were chosen because nuts are nutrient-dense snacks that promote a feeling of being full.
After the initial 12-week intervention, the students spent another 12 weeks maintaining the healthy snacking habit. Findings showed that students who recieved the snack more regularly had a decrease in their overal BMI (-.7kg/m2) compared to those who did not receive the regular peanut snack (-.3kg/m2).
Thus, researchers concluded that afterschool programs and schools, alike, should think about using peanuts for snacks in place of energy dense, unhealthy snacks for students as an alternative.
"Schools are doing a great job of teaching kids, getting them workforce ready, and a whole bunch of other things. We've just got to make sure that our kids are going to live long, happy lives with that kind of education," he said.
Though health officials are making progress when it comes to obesity, statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.
The study was published Thursday (March 4) in the Journal of Applied Research on Children.
