I came
across this article in NY times which mentions that the overall calorie
consumption among children has declined in the past decade thus showing an
improving trend in helping treat obesity. This decline was seen among children
between the age of 2 to 11 and more among teenage girls. This analysis was done from 1999 to 2010 and
it showed that the calorie reduction
among boys was about 7 percent bringing their total intake to 2100 calories a
day and among girls was 4 percent accounting to 1755 calories a day. The main change was seen in increased amounts
of calories from protein foods, reduced amounts of calories coming from
carbohydrates whereas those from fats were fairly stable. One of the schools in
north Philadelphia was incorporated salad as lunch which might have caused to
the surprising drop in calories. This main drop in carbohydrates may have been
related to decrease in consumption of sugars present in sugar sweetened
beverages and cereal with added sugars. Yet it is unclear if there were other
reasons behind the reduced carbohydrate intake.
Another
surprising research was that there was a decline in the consumption of calories
coming from fast food among adults. It showed a drop of 1.5% of adult’s total
daily intake in 2010 which were 11.3% when compared to the numbers in 2006
which was 12.8%. This decline was observed more 40-59 year old.
Though these numbers show some positive outlook, many more
years of research is needed to make this a big change in the current obesity
epidemic.
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