An educational program for parents helps to reduce pressure on children to eat — which may reduce the child's risk of obesity, reports a study in the September Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

Parents educated in an approach based on "division of responsibility" (DOR) for eating put less pressure on their children to eat certain foods, according to the new research, led by Dr. W. Stewart Agras of Stanford University. The study adds to the evidence that the DOR approach can promote healthy development of appetite and eating behaviors in young children.

Education Takes Pressure off Tots' Eating Behaviors

The study included 62 families with a toddler (aged two to four) considered at high risk of obesity — with at least one parent who was obese or overweight. One group of parents was educated in the DOR concept, which takes a child-development approach to "parent/child feeding interactions." Dr Agras explains, "At the family level parent feeding practices, such as taking control over their child's eating, appear to contribute to childhood overweight."

In the DOR approach, parents take responsibility for providing and serving food, while children are responsible for deciding whether or not to eat and how much to eat. "The primary principle is that crossing parent or child boundaries leads to feeding problems," according to the authors. The other group of parents was assigned to the National Institutes of Health's "We Can" program, which seeks to promote healthy eating and increased physical activity.

At follow-up, parents educated in the DOR approach were putting less pressure on their child to eat, compared to those taught about the "We Can" program. Two parental factors affected the pressure to eat: "disinhibition," reflecting the parents' tendency to overeat, and hunger or food cravings in the parents. Parents who learned about DOR put less pressure on their children to eat, regardless of their own disinhibition or hunger scores.

In contrast, for the "We Can" group, parents with low disinhibition and low hunger scores (that is, less control over eating and lower hunger/cravings) put more pressure on their children. Thus an approach that teaches parents to promote consumption of healthy foods may have actually led to a decrease in positive feeding practices

Parents in the DOR group were less likely to restrict food choices in girls, although not in boys. It may be that parents are more focused on girls' eating patterns, "in line with the greater concern about female weight and shape," the researchers write.

Children whose parents are obese or overweight are at risk of becoming obese themselves, possibly because the family environment reinforces "maladaptive" eating behaviors. There's evidence that parents becoming over-involved in their child's eating behavior — such as taking excessive control over their child's eating — contributes to childhood overweight. Excessive parental control over eating may interfere with the child's perceptions of hunger and feeling full (satiety).

Although the new study is only preliminary, it adds to the evidence that parents taught the DOR approach put less pressure on their child at mealtimes. A larger study with longer follow-up will be needed to determine whether the changes lead to a lower risk of childhood overweight or obesity. Dr Agras and colleagues add, "Efforts to increase consumption of healthy foods in toddlers should include counseling parents to model eating such foods and not to pressure children to eat them."

Consumers watching their diet should pay close attention to the amount of unhealthy foods they eat, but can relax when it comes to healthier options, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

"Although self-control is typically viewed as a battle between willpower and desire, consumers can't rely entirely on willpower to control their eating. They also need to create situations that will make them lose interest in food. One way is to keep better track of the quantity of unhealthy foods they eat," write authors Joseph P. Redden (University of Minnesota) and Kelly L. Haws (Texas A&M University).

Some consumers are able to exercise great self-control when it comes to their diets while millions of others can't seem to stop overindulging on unhealthy foods such as cookies and candies. Do the former have more willpower? Or are they simply satisfied more quickly?

In a series of studies, the authors found that consumers who successfully control their diets eat fewer unhealthy foods because they are satisfied sooner. They also found that many consumers with poor self-control were able to establish greater control when they paid close attention to the quantities of unhealthy foods they consumed because simply paying attention made them more quickly satisfied.

In one interesting study, a group of consumers were asked to eat either a healthy or an unhealthy snack. Some of the consumers were asked to count how many times they swallowed while eating the snack. Consumers who counted the number of times they swallowed were satisfied more quickly even if they otherwise had a low level of self-control. Monitoring how much they ate made consumers with low self-control behave like those with high self-control.

"Dieters should focus on the quantity of unhealthy foods but not the quantity of healthy foods. Monitoring healthy foods could actually be counterproductive to the goal of eating a healthier diet. So the secret to success is knowing when to monitor your eating," the authors conclude.

Many people can drop pounds quickly in the early phases of a diet, but studies have found that it is difficult to keep the weight off in the long term. For post-menopausal women, natural declines in energy expenditure could make long-term weight loss even more challenging. A new study finds that in post-menopausal women, some behaviors that are related to weight loss in the short term are not effective or sustainable for the long term. Interventions targeting these behaviors could improve long-term obesity treatment outcomes.

The research is published in the September issue of Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Lead investigator Bethany Barone Gibbs, PhD, University of Pittsburgh Department of Health and Physical Activity, explains that a number of factors work against long-term weight loss. "Not only does motivation decrease after you start losing weight, there are physiological changes, including a decreased resting metabolic rate. Appetite-related hormones increase. Researchers studying the brain are now finding that you have enhanced rewards and increased motivation to eat when you've lost weight." Combined with the natural energy expenditure decline in women following menopause, it is extremely difficult for older women to lose weight and maintain weight loss.

Traditional behavioral treatments for obesity, focused on caloric intake, have had poor long-term results. The investigators sought to determine if changes in eating behaviors and selected foods were associated with weight loss at six and 48 months in a group of overweight post-menopausal women. A total of 508 women were randomized to either a Lifestyle Change group or a Health Education group. The Lifestyle Change group met regularly with nutritionists, exercise physiologists, and psychologists throughout the study. Their goals were to reduce fats and caloric intake, increase consumption of fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, and participate in regular moderate exercise. The Health Education Group was offered seminars by health professionals on general women's health, but not specifically weight loss.

Investigators found that the eating behaviors associated with weight loss at six months were eating fewer desserts and fried foods, drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages, eating more fish, and eating at restaurants less. After four years, they found that eating fewer desserts and drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages continued to be associated with weight loss or maintenance. Eating fewer desserts and drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages were also related to long-term weight loss. However, eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat and cheese emerged as additional important predictors for long-term weight loss. Eating at restaurants declined at 48 months whether or not subjects lost weight. Dr. Barone Gibbs speculates that this may have been related to economic factors and not relevant to the study.

Dr. Barone Gibbs explains that strategies such as eating fewer fried foods may not be sustainable for the long term. "People are so motivated when they start a weight loss program. You can say, 'I'm never going to eat another piece of pie,' and you see the pounds coming off. Eating fruits and vegetables may not make as big a difference in your caloric intake. But that small change can build up and give you a better long-term result, because it's not as hard to do as giving up French fries forever."

The results suggest that decreased consumption of desserts and sugar-sweetened beverages consistently associate with short- and long-term weight loss or maintenance, but increased fruits and vegetables and decreased meat and cheeses are additional factors that may improve long-term weight loss or control. "If the goal is to reduce the burden of obesity, the focus must be on long-term strategies because changes in eating behaviors only associated with short-term weight loss are likely to be ineffective and unsustainable," concludes Dr. Barone Gibbs.

Married men will eat their peas to keep the peace, but many aren't happy about it, and may even binge on unhealthy foods away from home.

"The key to married men adopting a healthier diet is for couples to discuss and negotiate the new, healthier menu changes as a team," said Derek Griffith, assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

This seems obvious, but most times it doesn't happen, according to a new study called "'She looks out for the meals, period.' African-American men's perceptions of how their wives influence their eating behavior and dietary health."

Researchers conducted focus groups with 83 African-American men. The majority of men said their wives didn't consult them when helping them to adopt a healthier diet. Even though the healthier diet was often ordered by a physician, the husbands often disliked the food changes, but to avoid conflict, they didn't object. Men focused more on maintaining a happy home than having a say in what they ate.

In fact, the only examples found of couples negotiating healthy food choices came about to benefit the children in the home, Griffith said.

However, without that communication, those good intentions and healthy diet changes often backfired, the study found. After tasteless ground turkey for the fifth night in a row, some men would head to the all-you-can-eat buffet for "a landslide of food."

"I think at dinner a lot of men are eating healthier, but they compensate for the dissatisfaction of not eating what they want by making unhealthier choices outside the home," Griffith said.

Physicians can help by recognizing that wives play a central role in what men eat at home, Griffith said.

"Doctors could suggest that men have a tactful conversation with their wives in a way that ensures the husbands aren't sleeping on the couch that night," Griffith said.

Julie Ober Allen of the U-M School of Public Health and Henry Gaines of Black Men for Social Change are co-authors.

When eating is motivated by pleasure, rather than hunger, endogenous rewarding chemical signals are activated which can lead to overeating, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). The phenomenon ultimately affects body mass and may be a factor in the continuing rise of obesity.

"'Hedonic hunger' refers to the desire to eat for pleasure, and to enjoy the taste, rather than to restore the body's energy needs,"says Palmiero Monteleone, MD, of the University of Naples SUN in Italy and lead author of this study. "For example, desiring and eating a piece of cake even after a satiating meal is consumption driven by pleasure and not by energy deprivation. The physiological process underlying hedonic eating is not fully understood, but it is likely that endogenous substances regulating reward mechanisms like the hormone ghrelin and chemical compounds such as 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) are involved."

In this study, researchers assessed eight satiated healthy adults, aged 21-33 years, feeding them each their personal favorite food and, later, a less-palatable food of equal caloric and nutrient value. Researchers periodically measured 2-AG and ghrelin levels. The plasma levels of ghrelin and 2-AG increased during hedonic eating, with the favorite foods, but not with non-hedonic eating. This increase suggests an activation of the chemical reward system, which overrides the body's signal that enough has been eaten to restore energy.

"Hedonic hunger may powerfully stimulate overeating in an environment where highly palatable foods are omnipresent, and contribute to the surge in obesity,"says Monteleone. "Understanding the physiological mechanisms underlying this eating behaviour may shed some light on the obesity epidemic. Further research should confirm and extend our results to patients with obesity or with other eating disorders in order to better understand the phenomenon of hedonic eating."

Other researchers working on the study include: Pasquale Scognamiglio, Alessio Maria Monteleone, Benedetta Canestrelli, and Mario Maj of the University of Naples SUN, Naples, Italy; and Fabiana Piscitelli and Vincenzo Di Marzo of the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry, Pozzuli, Italy.

The article, "Hedonic eating is associated with increased peripheral levels of ghrelin and the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoyl-glycerol in healthy humans. A pilot study," appears in the June 2012 issue of JCEM.

Many Christians give up certain foods for Lent, however ecologists have discovered these changes in human diet have a dramatic impact on the diet of wild animals. In Ethiopia, members of the Orthodox Tewahedo Church stop eating meat and dairy products during a 55-day fast before Easter. As a result, spotted hyenas too change their eating habits — from scavenging waste from butchers and households to hunting — new research in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology has found.

Spotted hyenas are supremely adaptable mammals, capable both of adapting to habitats with dense human populations and to eating whatever food is available. While they are efficient hunters, they are also opportunistic scavengers, eating everything from birds, mammals, fish and reptiles to garbage, cooked porridge and dung. And they have digestive systems to match, says Gidey Yirga from Mekelle University.

"Hyenas can eat almost any organic matter, even putrid carrion and anthrax-infected carcasses. They are capable of eating and digesting all parts of their prey except hair and hooves. Bones are digested so completely that only the inorganic components are excreted in the hyena's droppings," he explains.

Working at three sites around Mekelle in northern Ethiopia, Yirga collected all hyena droppings from each 1 hectare site on three occasions on the first and last days of the 55-day Abye Tsome (Lent) fast, and then again 55 days after the fast ended — a total of 553 droppings.

To find out what the hyenas had been eating before, during and after Lent, he compared hairs found in the hyenas' droppings with a reference collection of hair from other animals found in the region.

The results showed that when humans stop buying, eating and discarding animal products the hyenas' eating habits change significantly: before Lent, 14.8% of hyena droppings contained donkey hairs, during Lent this increased to 33.1%, falling again to 22.2% once the fast was over.

According to Yirga: "Our study shows a remarkable change in the hyenas' diet — we found that hyenas around Mekelle mainly scavenge waste from butchers and households but during fasting donkeys provided an alternative food source."

By providing this unique insight into the effect of changes in human diet on local hyenas, the results illustrate that hyenas are highly adaptable and opportunistic scavengers and hunters. They also have implications for those managing the conflict that can arise when large carnivores use anthropogenic food sources.

"Understanding details of the foraging behaviour of carnivores in an anthropogenic environment can help reveal specific causes of conflict, leading to better strategies for reducing availability of anthropogenic food and preventing conflict," Yirga concludes.