Study: Smiley Faces Help Kids Select Healthy Foods

28 Apr 2015 --- Research presented at the Paediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in San Diego, CA, shows that smiley faces help kids eat more nutritious meals.

As part of a trial to make school lunches more appealing to children, researchers used smiley faces to label healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, fat-free milk and wholegrains. 

The study found that purchases of milk increased from 7.4% to 48% of total milk sales (an increase of 549%), while sales of chocolate milk consequently declined. Fruit purchases increased by 20%, while vegetable purchases went up by 62%. 

“It looks like we found a very promising, low-cost and effective way of improving the nutrition of elementary school children,” said study author, Dr Robert Siegel, medical director of the Center for Better Health and Nutrition of the Heart Institute, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “This type of program may be a useful component in schools trying to improve the nutrition and health of their students.”

Meanwhile, in a separate study, research shows that young children who watch as little as one hour of television a day were more likely to be overweight or obese compared to children who watched TV for less than 60 minutes a day. The study was also presented at the San Diego meeting. 

Efforts to fight the childhood obesity epidemic have focused on getting kids to be more active. Previous studies have shown that children who watch a lot of TV are at risk for being overweight. However, studies have not looked specifically at the link between TV watching and obesity among kindergartners.

For this study, researchers analyzed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey of 11,113 children who were in kindergarten during the 2011-2012 school year. As part of the study by the National Center for Education Statistics, lifestyle factors that could affect a child's educational performance were collected from parents, including the number of hours of television children watched on weekdays and weekends, and how often they used computers. In addition, children's weight and height were measured.

A year later, 10,853 of the children's height and weight were measured, and parents again were asked about their child's TV habits.

Results showed that U.S. kindergartners watched an average of 3.3 hours of TV a day. Both kindergartners and first-graders who watched one to two hours or more than two hours daily had significantly higher body mass indexes than those who watched less than 30 minutes or 30-60 minutes a day, even after adjusting for socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity and computer use.

In both kindergarten and first grade, children viewing as little as one hour of TV daily were 50-60 percent more likely to be overweight and 58 percent to 73 percent more likely to be obese compared to those watching less than an hour. Computer use, however, was not associated with higher weight.

Furthermore, children who watched one hour or more of TV daily were 39 percent more likely to become overweight and 86 percent more likely to become obese between kindergarten and first grade.

"Given overwhelming evidence connecting the amount of time TV viewing and unhealthy weight, pediatricians and parents should attempt to restrict childhood TV viewing," said study author Mark D. DeBoer, MD, MSc, MCR, associate professor of pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, University of Virginia.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends limiting children and teens to less than two hours of screen time each day. Dr. DeBoer, however, said even that might be too much.

"Given the data presented in this study, the AAP may wish to lower its recommended TV viewing allowances," he said.