Eat it up
Sarah Hill et al.
Appetite, December 2016, Pages 274–279
Abstract:
Many consumers report that healthy eating is more expensive than unhealthy eating (the affordability axiom). However, research suggests that healthy foods can be at least as cost-effective as unhealthy foods, raising the possibility that this belief might have more to do with one's food consumption goals than knowledge of food prices. We tested this hypothesis in three studies. Study 1 revealed that the affordability axiom is associated with poorer eating habits and higher Body Mass Index (BMI). Study 2 found that the presence of a tasty food cue in the environment increased endorsement of affordability axiom. Study 3 found that these effects were moderated by one's food intake goals. Food cues led non-dieters to increase endorsement of the affordability axiom, but had the opposite effect among those seeking to restrict their calorie intake. The affordability axiom might persist as a means of validating unhealthy food choices.
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Calorie Labeling in Chain Restaurants and Body Weight: Evidence from New York
Brandon Restrepo
Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study analyzes the impact of local mandatory calorie labeling laws implemented by New York jurisdictions on body weight. The analysis indicates that on average the point-of-purchase provision of calorie information on chain restaurant menus reduced body mass index (BMI) by 1.5% and lowered the risk of obesity by 12%. Quantile regression results indicate that calorie labeling has similar impacts across the BMI distribution. An analysis of heterogeneity suggests that calorie labeling has a larger impact on the body weight of lower income individuals, especially lower income minorities. The estimated impacts of calorie labeling on physical activity, smoking, and the consumption of alcoholic beverages, fruits, and vegetables are small in magnitude, which suggests that other margins of adjustment drive the body-weight impacts estimated here.
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Mads Hjorth et al.
Physiology & Behavior, 15 October 2016, Pages 398–404
Background/objectives: Aside from the health consequences, observational studies indicate that being overweight may also negatively affect cognitive function. However, existing evidence has to a large extent not controlled for the possible confounding effect of having different lifestyles. Therefore, the objective was to examine the independent associations between weight status and lifestyle indicators with cognitive performance in 8–11 year old Danish children.
Subjects/methods: The analyses included 828 children (measured in 2011–2012) each having one to three measurement occasions separated by approximately 100 days. Dietary intake, physical activity, sedentary time, and sleep duration were measured using dietary records and accelerometers. The Child Sleep Habits Questionnaire was used to access sleep problems and the Andersen test was carried out to estimate cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF). Weight status (underweight, normal weight, and overweight/obese) was defined according to body mass index and cognitive performance was assessed using the d2-test of attention, a reading test, and a math test. A linear mixed model including a number of fixed and random effects was used to test associations between lifestyle indicators as well as BMI category and cognitive performance.
Results: After adjustment for demographics, socioeconomics, and multiple lifestyle indicators, normal weight children had higher cognitive test scores than overweight/obese and underweight children of up to 89% and 48% of expected learning within one school year (P < 0.05). Daily breakfast consumption, fewer sleep problems, higher CRF, less total physical activity, more sedentary time, and less light physical activity were associated with higher cognitive performance independently of each other in at least one of the three cognitive tests (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Normal weight children had higher cognitive performance compared to overweight/obese as well as underweight children, independent of multiple lifestyle indicators.
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Genes and the Intergenerational Transmission of BMI and Obesity
Timothy Classen & Owen Thompson
Economics & Human Biology, December 2016, Pages 121–133
Abstract:
This paper compares the strength of intergenerational transmission of body mass index (BMI) and obesity in a sample of adoptees relative to a matched sample of biological children with similar observable characteristics. We find that BMI and obesity are strongly correlated among biological parent-child pairs, but there are no significant intergenerational associations in these health traits among adoptive parent-child pairs. The intergenerational elasticity of BMI for children to their parents is 0.2 in the matched biological sample, but indistinguishable from zero for adopted children with a standard error more than three times as large as the coefficient. Under reasonable assumptions, these findings indicate that the intergenerational transmission of BMI and obesity occurs primarily through genetic mechanisms. Additional analyses of transmission rates by parental gender and among step-parents and step-children support this conclusion. The role of determinants of BMI and obesity in the household environment in relation to our findings is discussed. Given the negative consequences of obesity on earnings and other economic measures, our results suggest that the genetic transmission of weight problems contributes substantially to intergenerational persistence in economic outcomes.
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Relationship between body mass index and moral disapproval rating for ethical violations
Carmelo Vicario & Robert Rafal
Personality and Individual Differences, January 2017, Pages 8–11
Abstract:
Evidence documents a direct relationship between disgust processing and Body Mass Index (BMI). People with high BMI tend to have a lower disgust sensitivity (DS) threshold, while this trait is more accentuated in people with low BMI. Here we provide new insights to this issue by exploring the relationship between BMI and the experience of moral disgust. Results document a significant negative correlation between BMI and moral disapproval rating (MDR) for ethical violations, in that the higher the BMI the lower the MDR. In concordance with previous investigations, we also found that BMI correlates with DS, as measured with a standard test, in that the higher the BMI the lower the DS. Overall, the main result of this paper, which might have direct implication for research in social justice, highlights the relevance of BMI, as an individual variable, in predicting ethical behavior.
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Body mass index and all-cause mortality among older adults
Feon Cheng et al.
Obesity, forthcoming
Methods: The association between BMI (both as a categorical and continuous variable) and all-cause mortality was investigated using 4,565 Geisinger Rural Aging Study participants with baseline age 74.0 ± 4.7 years (mean ± SD) and BMI 29.5 ± 5.3 kg/m2 over a mean of 10.9 ± 3.8 years of follow-up.
Results: The relationship between BMI (as a continuous variable) and all-cause mortality was found to be U-shaped (P nonlinearity <0.001). Controlling for age, sex, smoking, alcohol, laboratory values, medications, and comorbidity status, underweight (BMI <18.5 kg/m2) individuals had significantly greater adjusted risk of all-cause mortality than persons of BMI 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2 (reference range). Participants with overweight (BMI 25.0–29.9 kg/m2) and class I obesity (BMI 30.0–34.9 kg/m2) had significantly lower adjusted-risk of all-cause mortality. Those with classes II/III obesity (BMI ≥ 35.0 kg/m2) did not have significantly greater adjusted-risk of all-cause mortality. Findings were consistent using propensity score weights and among never-smokers with 2- and 5-year lag analysis and among those with no identified chronic disease.
Conclusions: A U-shaped association was observed between BMI and all-cause mortality with lower risk among older persons with overweight and class I obesity in comparison with those with BMI 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2.
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Licence to eat: Information on energy expended during exercise affects subsequent energy intake
Duncan McCaig, Lydia Hawkins & Peter Rogers
Appetite, December 2016, Pages 323–329
Abstract:
An acute bout of exercise, compared with no exercise, appears to have little influence on subsequent energy intake (EI), resulting in short-term negative energy balance. Whereas the labelling of food is evidenced to influence EI, little research has focused on how EI is affected by framing acute exercise in different ways. To explore this, 70 healthy, mostly lean, male and female participants in the current study completed a set amount of exercise (estimated energy expenditure (EE) 120 kcal), but were informed on three occasions before and after the exercise that they had expended either 50 kcal or 265 kcal. An ad libitum test meal, comprising orange juice, tortilla chips and chocolate chip cookies, was then presented after a 10-min break to assess subsequent EI. Measures of hunger and dietary restraint were also completed. Greater EI, primarily driven by chocolate chip cookie consumption (p = 0.015), was observed in participants receiving 265 kcal EE information. Hunger ratings were significantly lower in the 265 kcal EE information group than in the 50 kcal group following the test meal (p = 0.035), but not immediately after the exercise. These results support an interpretation that higher EE information (265 kcal) provides participants with a greater ‘license to eat’ when palatable foods are accessible. Tentative evidence for a moderating effect of dietary restraint was observed, indicating a greater influence of EE information in participants with lower restraint. The findings of the current study suggest that the provision of EE information (e.g., through mobile device apps) could be counter-productive to healthy weight management.
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Claudia Dumitrescu, Renée Shaw Hughner & Clifford Shultz
International Journal of Consumer Studies, September 2016, Pages 519–526
Abstract:
Childhood obesity has become a public health crisis requiring action from government and food marketers. Building on attribution theory, this study advances understanding of how parents respond to information about policies intended to restrict sales promotion (i.e. toy premiums) paired with children's fast food meals, the consumption of which is often linked to obesity. This research uses experimental design to test the effects of two types of sales promotion restrictions on parents’ attitudes and behavioural intentions: industry self-regulated restrictions and restrictions arising from government-mandated policies. The results show that a toy premiums ban may lead to higher satisfaction with, and behavioural intentions toward, less-healthy food products. These responses are explained by parents’ minimized tendency to blame the food marketers for less-healthy meals. The contributions of this research have theoretical and practical implications for policy makers, food marketers and consumer researchers.
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Effects of U.S. Public Agricultural R&D on U.S. Obesity and its Social Costs
Julian Alston, Joanna MacEwan & Abigail Okrent
Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, September 2016, Pages 492-520
Abstract:
How much has food abundance, attributable to U.S. public agricultural R&D, contributed to high and rising U.S. obesity rates? In this paper we investigate the effects of public investment in agricultural R&D on food prices, per capita calorie consumption, adult body weight, obesity, public healthcare expenditures related to obesity, and consumer welfare. We find that a 10% increase in the stream of annual U.S. public investment in agricultural R&D in the latter half of the twentieth century would have caused a modest increase in the average daily calorie consumption of American adults, resulting in small increases in public healthcare expenditures related to obesity. On the other hand, such an increase in spending would have generated very substantial consumer benefits, and net national benefits, given the very large benefit-cost ratios for agricultural R&D. This implies that current policy objectives of revising agricultural R&D priorities to pursue obesity objectives are likely to be comparatively unproductive and socially wasteful. Moreover, R&D lags of decades mean that such an approach would be totally ineffective in the immediate horizon.
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Observed self-regulation is associated with weight in low-income toddlers
Alison Miller et al.
Appetite, October 2016, Pages 705–712
Abstract:
Obesity emerges in early childhood and tracks across development. Self-regulation develops rapidly during the toddler years, yet few studies have examined toddlers' self-regulation in relation to concurrent child weight. Further, few studies compare child responses in food and non-food-related tasks. Our goal was to examine toddlers' observed behavioral and emotional self-regulation in food and non-food tasks in relation to their body mass index z-score (BMIz) and weight status (overweight/obese vs. not). Observational measures were used to assess self-regulation (SR) in four standardized tasks in 133 low-income children (M age = 33.1 months; SD = 0.6). Behavioral SR was measured by assessing how well the child could delay gratification for a snack (food-related task) and a gift (non-food-related task). Emotional SR was measured by assessing child intensity of negative affect in two tasks designed to elicit frustration: being shown, then denied a cookie (food-related) or a toy (non-food-related). Task order was counterbalanced. BMIz was measured. Bivariate correlations and regression analyses adjusting for child sex, child race/ethnicity, and maternal education were conducted to examine associations of SR with weight. Results were that better behavioral SR in the snack delay task associated with lower BMIz (β = −0.27, p < 0.05) and lower odds of overweight/obesity (OR = 0.66, 95% CI 0.45, 0.96), but behavioral SR in the gift task did not associate with BMIz or weight status. Better emotional SR in the non-food task associated with lower BMIz (β = −0.27, p < 0.05), and better emotional SR in food and non-food tasks associated with lower odds of overweight/obesity (OR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.45, 0.96 and OR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.37, 0.87, respectively). Results are discussed regarding how behavioral SR for food and overall emotional SR relate to weight during toddlerhood, and regarding early childhood obesity prevention implications.
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Evidence of Polygenic Adaptation in the Systems Genetics of Anthropometric Traits
Renato Polimanti et al.
PLoS ONE, August 2016
Abstract:
Many signals of natural selection have been identified in the human genome. However, except for some single-locus mechanisms, most molecular processes generating these adaptation signals are still unknown. We developed an approach that integrates datasets related to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) with information about systems biology and genetic signatures of natural selection to identify evidence of polygenic adaptation. Specifically, we focused on five anthropometric measurements: body mass index (BMI), height, waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI (WHR), and waist circumference adjusted for BMI (WC), and sex differences for WHR and WC. We performed an enrichment analysis for signals of natural selection in protein interaction networks associated with anthropometric traits in European populations. The adaptation signals-enriched gene networks associated highlighted epistatic interactions in the context of polygenic selection for the investigated traits. These polygenic mechanisms indicated intriguing selective mechanisms related to the anthropometric traits: adult locomotory behavior for BMI, infection resistance for height, interplay between lipid transport and immune systems for WHR, and female-specific polygenic adaptation for WHR and WC. In conclusion, we observed evidence of polygenic adaptation in the context of systems genetics of anthropometric traits that indicates polygenic mechanisms related to the natural selection in European populations.
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First come, first served. Does pouring sequence matter for consumption?
Nanette Stroebele-Benschop, Anastasia Galasso & Carolin Hilzendegen
Appetite, October 2016, Pages 731–736
Abstract:
Various environmental factors associated with eating and drinking affect people's food choice and food intake. Lately, the role of tableware has been studied in more detail. The aim of this study was to determine whether pouring sequence of food components affects portion size. Study 1 invited participants to pour a beverage containing both apple juice and sparkling water. Pouring apple juice first increased juice by almost 25% compared to pouring water first. Pouring water first increased water by almost 19% compared to pouring juice first confirming our hypothesis that pouring sequence affects the ratio poured. Study 2 asked participants to prepare themselves a snack containing cereals with milk. Within-subject comparisons revealed that pouring milk before cereals significantly increased both milk and cereal amounts resulting in larger overall portion size compared to pouring cereals before adding milk. Habitual tendencies for preparing foods causing a perception bias or a perception bias itself could be possible explanations for the divergent study findings. These findings show for the first time the influence of pouring and preparation sequence on portion size.