Over the weekend I finished former FDA Commissioner David Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating. Although the book isn’t about “kids and food” per se, I wanted to share some research he cites regarding children and what he calls “conditioned hypereating.”
According to Kessler, we’ve known for a long time that infants and preschool children have an innate ability to adjust their food consumption to meet their caloric needs. So if, for example, a young child is fed something particularly calorie-dense, research shows that the child will naturally compensate by eating less of other foods that day. Young kids do this unthinkingly as their bodies strive to maintain a state of homeostasis.
But, according to Kessler, all of that is now changing.
One researcher quoted by Kessler states that in the 1980s, children ages 2-4 were compensating for about 90% of any extra calories added to their diet. However, by the 1990’s, they were compensating for only 45% of those calories. This researcher says that among her current 3-4 year old subjects, she’s seeing a new kind of overeating:
Fifteen years ago I would have said with great confidence that preschoolers compensate. But in the studies we have been doing of late, I see an incredible amount of dysregulatory behavior. . . . I’m sensing a newer kind of disinhibition in children. . . . I never saw children who ate and ate until you finally had to cut them off and say, ‘You’re done.’ They are eating to excess now.
What’s going on here? Kessler believes the change in eating behavior has to do with young children’s regular exposure to overly large portion sizes and the increasing availability of what Kessler calls “stimulating food.”
Whatever else you think of Kessler’s theories (and I’m not totally on board with all of them), there’s no doubt that he’s correct about one thing: cheap, processed and delicious food has never been so readily available at every turn. I’m reminded again of the parent whom I quoted in my Stacy’s pita chip post (on kids and snacking), the one who hesitated to take her kids to seemingly innocuous places like the car wash because they’d start to beg for the chips, candy and soda inevitably displayed in the waiting area.
As a parent, it’s exhausting to act as the gate keeper between our child and a never-ending onslaught of processed foods, and sometimes we feel like we’re becoming neurotic Food Police when we do so. Yet Kessler’s research supports the fact that such vigilance, especially with very young children, is not only warranted — it’s critical.
Waverly says
Thank you for your article. The numbers of obese adults and children get worse every year. As a parent who tries to “cocoon” my children from the insidious nature of junk food (and I consider all processed food to be in that category), I know that sometimes it feels like a losing battle. Our culture and the availability of cheap junky food makes my job difficult at best. Junk food manufacturers know what people like. They sell food that won’t fill you up and keeps you coming back for more. It’s an ideal formula for turning a profit. Our only hope is to instill a love for natural wholesome food in our children. That is something that begins at home (their sure not going to get it at school).
Viki says
Can you remember getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar?
and getting in trouble?
When I was a kid. There were snacks. Homemade. We had to ASK for them. We didn’t have free range of the fridge. Mom or Grandma gave us the snack.
The cookie jar(s) at our house were old fashioned pressed glass jars with lids. They made a clinking sound when you took the lid off. It took me forever to learn how to take the lid off without making that sound. Usually I was caught before I could get a cookie out. Ah. those were the days.
Just think. Those cookies had real sugar not HFCS, we drank whole milk with them. (believe me I didn’t have a weight problem) Mom made fresh lemonade with real sugar too. Back then even Koolaid was made with real sugar and I believe we only had it at a neighbor’s house and even then only rarely.
I like Michael Pollan’s advice to eat Junk Food only if you make it yourself.
Now, my teen only asks when it is close to dinner time. I do keep plenty of fruit on hand. There are rarely soft drinks now that I don’t do HFCS. We do buy pretzels sometimes.
I try to keep Stacy out of the house, because we have no control when she is here.
bettina elias siegel says
Viki: That principal of Pollan’s is really good – nothing is off limits but when it’s so very easy to access, that’s when problems arise. And now, I’m off to bake up some from-scratch pita chips. . . . 🙂
Lisa says
I know what you and the expert are saying is true. I am treating a 3 year old who weighs 62lbs. She has gained 7 lbs since April 19th. She can hardly move because of her girth. She is also narcoleptic and probably sleep apneic. She will actually fall asleep while walking. Her voice is barely perceptible I believe because the fat around her throat is constricting her vocal cords. When I confront the mother she says other “fat kids are fine”. She says the child throws a fit if given fruit and will only eat rice and potatoes. I’ve been sick about this for months. Trust me I believe kids don’t over eat unless parents facilitate it. I blame this mother for this problem and believe me I told her that “her fat child is NOT fine”.
bettina elias siegel says
Lisa: What a horrible, depressing story, and yet not uncommon, apparently. I’ve had other people who work in medicine describe similar scenarios. Thanks for sharing it here. – Bettina
Lindsey says
What to do about the grandparents? They got my daughter a giant waffle cone with THREE scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream. I could never finish that. My daughter did, and she ate a huge lunch merely 10 minutes before. All of my protests that ‘it was enough’ was met with resistance.
bettina elias siegel says
We’ve had the same issue with certain relatives who shall remain nameless. It’s like food = love, and no amount of parental protests can stop them. Sigh.
Lisa says
That food=love is an interesting point. I go back to my earlier post. I told this mother that they should all eat the healthy food and rave about it to the 3 yr old. If she did not eat, take it away and tell her to leave the table. This child can afford to miss a meal or three. But the mother, who is uneducated and poor, feels that if she feeds her child she is providing for her. She doesn’t realize this child might drop dead of a heart attack trying to run in the yard bc she’s so over weight. She isn’t caring for her child – its darn close to child abuse. And her 10 yr old older sister is already pre-diabetic. You would die if you saw how hard this child has to work to get up after she’s fallen asleep walking and fallen down on the floor. I called the pediatrician’s office and yelled at them this week for not being her advocate. The mother tells me they’re trying to change her diet but she comes in my clinic with hot cheeto dust crusted under her finger nails. At least cover up the evidence.
Viki says
Why can’t Good food =Love.
Lisa I do think that this qualifies as a type of child abuse. Because the mother is uneducated can the pediatrician or you not demand that she go to some parenting classes on behavior modification and nutrition. If she could somehow just not feed the poor child processed food, it would help.
All I can think is the mother has some serious issues too.
Bettina let me know how those homemade chips turn out okay?
Leslie says
Hi Bettina–
Thanks for the thought-provoking post!
I think the researchers, in their blindness to all but the lowfat paradigm, are missing a crucial point here: A human body does not have ONLY “caloric needs,” it also has “NUTRIENT needs,” which are not satisfied when the body is over and over again deprived of the nutrients in proteins and old-fashioned saturated fats (yes, saturated), like those found in whole milk, butter, eggs, cream, beef, coconut oil, and so on.
“Dysregulatory behavior”? “Disinhibition”? Perhaps the children are not displaying “disinhibition” of their eating impulses, but just plain old hunger, the hunger that is not satisfied with a lowfat meal. Perhaps the children in the 80s research did not have better “inhibition” but rather better food to eat.
Maybe we feel a huge need for “vigilance” today because our children are not armed with the sense of satisfaction they had when we fed our kids whole milk and butter and beef and cream and eggs and such. Of course, vegies are healthy, but they do not make a complete meal in and of themselves for growing children. We’ve all heard of kids turning up their noses at desserts or junk food at times–I would guess that those kids are satisfied in such a way that they have no appetite for even attractive junk.
Even the fat kids mentioned above may not be starving for CALORIES, but are very likely starving for NUTRIENTS. We need to reconfigure our common-sense ideas of what foods truly do contain nutrients–yes, vegies, but also proteins and old-fashioned fats, too. I too wish the mother of that 3-year-old would not feed her child flaming hot Cheetos, but we need to offer her alternatives that will satisfy her daughter, rather than alternatives that will leave her daughter hungry for more.
Before this lowfat era, snacks, meals, and even desserts used to have some nourishing elements to them: eggs and cream, maybe cheese, like in a sour cream cheesecake. Today, many people are hungry one hour or so after a (lowfat) meal. No wonder snacks hold such an attraction for us. We are fighting against our bodies’ very real needs. What a shame.
bettina elias siegel says
Leslie: I wonder what David Kessler would say in response to your comment. I think he attributes the overeating to the highly palatable nature of processed foods and increased serving sizes that lead us all -kids and adults – to eat more, as studies have clearly shown. But I take your point about fats, and completely agree that children need healthy fats and should not be put on a low-fat diet. Thanks as always for taking the time to comment. – Bettina