One major contributor to the problem of childhood overweight and obesity is the over-consumption of foods high in fat, salt and sugar, such as snack foods. The current study aimed to examine young children's snack intake and the influence of feeding strategies used by parents in the context of general parenting style. Participants were 611 mothers of children aged 2-7 years who completed an onl...

BACKGROUND Efforts to improve snacking and drinking habits are needed to promote a healthy body mass index (BMI) in adolescents. Although commercial fitness and nutrition mobile phone apps are widely used, little is known regarding their potential to improve health behaviors, especially in adolescents. In addition, evidence on the mechanisms through which such fitness and nutrition apps influen...

OBJECTIVE We examined associations between snack frequency, sociodemographic characteristics, BMI, dietary and eating behaviour. In order to identify whether various subgroups of high-frequency snack consumers exist, we investigated underlying food patterns and lifestyle factors. DESIGN The data were based on the Swiss Food Panel Questionnaire of 2010, which included an FFQ, questions relatin...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the proportion of snack food and beverage choices available to an Australian consumer. DESIGN A survey of product Nutrition Information Panels (NIP) and product labels on snack foods and beverages offered for sale. Data on nutrient content were compared with criteria from different nutrient profile systems to estimate the proportion of items conforming to a choice. SET...

PURPOSE To assess the effect of consuming a mid-morning almond snack (28 and 42 g) tested against a negative control of no almonds on acute satiety responses. METHOD On three test days, 32 healthy females consumed a standard breakfast followed by 0, 28 or 42 g of almonds as a mid-morning snack and then ad libitum meals at lunch and dinner. The effect of the almond snacks on satiety was assess...

The current study sought to explore discrepancies between children's stated snack food motivations and actual food choices, using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as a measure of implicit attitudes towards 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' foods. Participants were children aged 6-12 years (n=118), from two primary schools on the South Coast of NSW, Australia a public school in a semi-rural suburb so...

We leverage behavioral economics to explore new approaches to tackling child food choice and consumption. Using a field experiment with >1500 children, we report several key insights. We find that incentives have large influences: in the control, 17% of children prefer the healthy snack, whereas introduction of small incentives increases take-up of the healthy snack to ∼75%. There is some evide...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to determine whether a high-protein afternoon yogurt snack improves appetite control, satiety, and reduces subsequent food intake compared to other commonly-consumed, energy dense, high-fat snacks. FINDINGS Twenty, healthy women (age: 27 ± 2 y; BMI: 23.4 ± 0.7 kg/m2) completed the randomized crossover design study which included 3, 8-h testing days com...

OBJECTIVE Health advocates have focused on the prevalence of advertising for calorie-dense low-nutrient foods as a significant contributor to the obesity epidemic. This research tests the hypothesis that exposure to food advertising during TV viewing may also contribute to obesity by triggering automatic snacking of available food. DESIGN In Experiments 1a and 1b, elementary-school-age childr...