Big problems
Amelia Branigan
Sociology of Education, January 2017, Pages 25-46
Abstract:
In this study I hypothesize a larger penalty of obesity on teacher-assessed academic performance for white girls in English, where femininity is privileged, than in math, where stereotypical femininity is perceived to be a detriment. This pattern of associations would be expected if obesity largely influences academic performance through social pathways, such as discrimination and stigma. In the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (age ~9) and the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 (age ~18), I find obesity to be associated with a penalty on academic performance among white girls in English but not in math, while no association is found in either subject for white boys or for black students net of controls. Findings suggest that the relationship between obesity and academic performance may result largely from how educational institutions interact differently with bodies of different sizes rather than primarily via constraints on physical health.
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Rebecca Pearl, Rebecca Puhl & John Dovidio Analyses of
Social Issues and Public Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
Weight-based discrimination is pervasive and increases vulnerability to poor mental health among targeted individuals. Legislation prohibiting weight discrimination has been proposed as an avenue for reducing social injustice. The present research examines how mere knowledge of such legislation may improve the psychological well-being of individuals who have experienced unfair treatment due to weight. In an experiment administered online, 214 adults with overweight/obesity read a vignette exemplifying weight discrimination and were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, in which they were informed that weight discrimination was illegal or legal, and then responded to questionnaires assessing internalized weight bias, affect, perceived pervasiveness of weight discrimination, and support for anti-discrimination legislation. Analysis of covariance revealed that participants with obesity in the Illegal condition exhibited lower levels of internalized weight bias than did participants in the Legal condition. Participants in the Illegal condition also exhibited less negative affect and more positive affect than did those in the Legal condition. No significant effects of condition on perceived pervasiveness of weight discrimination or legislation support emerged. Findings suggest that mere knowledge of legislation prohibiting weight discrimination has the potential to reduce weight bias internalization and improve affective responses among individuals with obesity.
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Cost of Children's Healthy vs Unhealthy Snacks Does Not Differ at Convenience Stores
Robin DeWeese & Punam Ohri-Vachaspati
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, forthcoming
Objective: This study compared the prices of unhealthy (chips) and healthy (ready-to-eat fruit) snacks that students are likely to purchase from corner stores.
Methods: Snacks were purchased from 325 New Jersey corner stores; chip prices were compared with fruit prices overall and by store sales volume and block group characteristics.
Results: Prices did not differ significantly between chips and fruit in the overall sample in which both items were available (n = 104) (chips: $0.46 ± $0.15; fruit: $0.49 ± $0.19; P = .48) or by store or block group characteristics. Neither mean fruit prices nor mean chip prices differed by store sales volume or by neighborhood characteristics.
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Charles Baum
Demography, February 2017, Pages 311–336
Abstract:
This study examines the effects of college on weight over much of the life cycle. I compare weights for college students with their weights before and after college and with the weights of noncollege peers using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). I also examine the longer-term effects of college measured almost three decades later. I find that college freshmen gain substantially less than the 15 pounds rumored to be typical for freshmen. Using difference models, individual-specific fixed-effects models, and instrumental variables models to control for various sources of potential bias, I find that freshman year college attendance is estimated to cause only about a one-pound increase. Supplemental results show that those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds gain more weight during the freshman college year. Longer term, having a college education consistently decreases weight. These negative effects have faded over the last 20 years, and they diminish as respondents approach middle age. These trends are more prevalent for whites and Hispanics than for blacks.
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To squeeze or not to squeeze: How squeeze tubes affect consumers' serving sizes
Elke Huyghe, Maggie Geuens & Iris Vermeir
Appetite, April 2017, Pages 56–62
Abstract:
Squeeze tubes increasingly complement traditional packaging. But, would squeeze tubes - besides offering ease of use - also affect consumers' serving sizes? And if so, in what way? To answer these questions, we contrast the motor fluency hypothesis (i.e., bodily movements affect judgments) with the consumption monitoring hypothesis (i.e., paying attention to quantities eaten affects consumption). Two studies reveal that consumers use less of a product when it comes in a squeeze tube versus a traditional container, providing initial evidence for the consumption monitoring hypothesis. A third study also provides evidence that the ease of consumption monitoring drives the squeeze tube effect, which is more prominent for unrestrained eaters. These findings have important implications for consumers, public policy makers, and product manufacturers.
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Nicole Bush et al.
JAMA Pediatrics, January 2017, Pages 61-67
Importance: Pediatricians are paying increased attention to the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on children’s health. Low SES is a robust predictor of obesity across the life course and may interact with genes affecting metabolism to influence obesity risk. Recent animal literature and burgeoning human research suggest that the hormone oxytocin (OT) may be important for metabolic regulation. To date, this association has not been examined in children.
Design, Setting, and Participants: In this observational study, families were recruited from public school classrooms and enrolled in the Peers and Wellness Study (PAWS), which examined the effects of social status on health. Families were assessed during children’s kindergarten year (fall semester of 2003, 2004, and 2005) and again during middle childhood (2009-2011) for a follow-up assessment that included anthropometric measures and DNA collection. The dates of the analysis were January 2015 to June 2016.
Results: From the original community sample of 338 typically developing children, participants were 186 socioeconomically and racially/ethnically diverse children (mean age, 10.3 years; age range, 9.4-11.3 years; 93 females [50%]) who had sufficient data at the follow-up assessment for inclusion in this study. Among 97 A allele carriers, a 1-SD increase in SES was associated with a decrease in BMIz of 0.28 (95% CI, −0.47 to −0.09) and a decrease in skinfold thickness of 0.95 (95% CI, −1.77 to −0.12) mm, such that they exhibited the highest BMIz and skinfold thickness in contexts of low SES but exhibited the lowest BMIz and skinfold thickness in contexts of high SES. Socioeconomic status was unrelated to BMIz (95% CI, −0.21 to 0.26) or skinfold thickness (95% CI, −0.42 to 1.45) for 89 GG genotyped children.
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Do School Food Programs Improve Child Dietary Quality?
Travis Smith
American Journal of Agricultural Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper estimates the impact of U.S. school food programs on the distribution of child dietary quality during 2005–10. The distributional approach allows one to better understand how school food impacts children prone to low-quality diets separately from those prone to higher-quality diets. Using a fixed-effects quantile estimator, I find notable heterogeneity in the general population — school food has positive impacts below the median of the dietary-quality distribution, and negative but insignificant impacts at upper quantiles. Children demonstrating substantial nutritional needs (i.e., food insecure or receiving free/reduced price meals) exhibit positive impacts at all levels of diet quality with especially high benefits at low quantiles. Although school food programs may not benefit the “above-average” child, they do improve the diets of the most nutritionally disadvantaged.
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Lara Dugas et al.
PeerJ, January 2017
Background: Increasing population-levels of physical activity (PA) is a controversial strategy for managing the obesity epidemic, given the conflicting evidence for weight loss from PA alone per se. We measured PA and weight change in a three-year prospective cohort study in young adults from five countries (Ghana, South Africa, Jamaica, Seychelles and USA).
Methods: A total of 1,944 men and women had baseline data, and at least 1 follow-up examination including measures of anthropometry (weight/BMI), and objective PA (accelerometer, 7-day) following the three-year study period. PA was explored as 1-minute bouts of moderate and vigorous PA (MVPA) as well as daily sedentary time.
Results: At baseline; Ghanaian and South African men had the lowest body weights (63.4 ± 9.5, 64.9 ± 11.8 kg, respectively) and men and women from the USA the highest (93.6 ± 25.9, 91.7 ± 23.4 kg, respectively). Prevalence of normal weight ranged from 85% in Ghanaian men to 29% in USA men and 52% in Ghanaian women to 15% in USA women. Over the two-year follow-up period, USA men and Jamaican women experienced the smallest yearly weight change rate (0.1 ± 3.3 kg/yr; −0.03 ± 3.0 kg/yr, respectively), compared to South African men and Ghanaian women greatest yearly change (0.6.0 ± 3.0 kg/yr; 1.22 ± 2.6 kg/yr, respectively). Mean yearly weight gain tended to be larger among normal weight participants at baseline than overweight/obese at baseline. Neither baseline MVPA nor sedentary time were associated with weight gain. Using multiple linear regression, only baseline weight, age and gender were significantly associated with weight gain.
Discussion: From our study it is not evident that higher volumes of PA alone are protective against future weight gain, and by deduction our data suggest that other environmental factors such as the food environment may have a more critical role.
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Worldwide Increase of Obesity Is Related to the Reduced Opportunity for Natural Selection
Alicja Budnik & Maciej Henneberg
PLoS ONE, January 2017
Abstract:
Worldwide rise of obesity may be partly related to the relaxation of natural selection in the last few generations. Accumulation of mutations affecting metabolism towards excessive fat deposition is suggested to be a result of less purging selection. Using the WHO and UN data for 159 countries there is a significant correlation (r = 0.60, p<0.01) between an index of the relaxed opportunity for selection (Biological State Index) and prevalence of obesity (percentage of individuals with BMI >30kg/m2). This correlation remains significant (r = 0.32., p<0.01) when caloric intake and insufficient physical activity prevalence are kept statistically constant (partial correlation analysis, N = 82). The correlation is still significant when gross domestic product per capita is also kept constant (r = 0.24, p <0.05, N = 81). In the last decades, prevalence of both obesity and underweight has increased in some countries despite no change in caloric intake nor in physical inactivity prevalence. Relaxed selection against genes affecting energy balance and metabolism may contribute to the increase of fatness independent from commonly considered positive energy balance. Diagnoses of individual predispositions to obesity at an early age and individual counselling on diet and behaviour may be appropriate strategies to limit further increases in body mass.