You are... bread?

My sister...?

You are what you eat my mother always says! And so does my sister come to think of it... does that mean my sister is this?

I certainly hope not, because that would be kind of creepy. Humans aren't meant to be made of vegetables... eat them? Sure. Be them? No.

This week I have to write a summary of an article done on my blog topic, which is healthy weight.

The article is Here. It is an article on the effects of beverages on children, and we are specifically looking at sugary beverages, such as fruit juices and sweetened fruit drinks.

The aim of the study was to pinpoint if there was a link between the consumption of such beverages and its effects on weight status, IE obesity. The sample for this particular study was gathered through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2002), and targeted preschool children specifically.

There were four elements to the study. First was the element of parent reported demographic descriptors - Eg, the ethnicity of the child, physical activity level, age, income of the family, etc. Secondly, there was a 24 hour dietary recall, with a trained interviewer getting the parent and child to reflect the foods and drinks consumed by the child that previous day. Thirdly, there was a physical fitness test of sorts, though simple for younger children. Finally, there was a standardized physical examination by a doctor.

100% fruit juice drinks were considered to only be so if they had no sweeteners, fruit drinks were any sweetened fruit juice, a drink flavored with fruit, or drink that contained fruit juice in part. Milk drinks were drinks that contained dairy, and was sub categorized further by percentage of milk fat. Any sweetened soft drink was classified as soda. Diet drinks were any of the above that were sweetened using a low calorie sweetener. Water was not included in this study. The amounts were reported in ounces to make the study easier.

The limits used for underweight were less than 5% BMI, normal weight was 5%-85%, risk of overweight was 85-95%, and overweight was greater than 95%. There were so few underweight, that their numbers were rolled into the 'normal' category.

There were 1572 children between the ages of 2 to 5, and were therefore included in the study. However, many of these had missing data, and were removed from the data set. The final number was 1160 children. 49.9% were male, while 50.1% were female. 35% were Caucasian, 28.3% were black, and 36.7% were Hispanic.

The findings were as follows:

24% of the children were overweight or at risk for being overweight. (OUCH thats a lot)
10.7% were overweight.
Overweight children tended to be older.
83% of children drank milk. (I personally hate the stuff)
48% drank 100% fruit juice.
44% drank fruit drinks.
39% drank soda (SO BAD)
The average child consumed 26.93 oz. per day, with 12.32 oz being milk, 4.7 oz of 100% fruit juice, 4.98 oz of fruit drinks, and 3.25 oz of soda.

HOWEVER - there was no conclusive statistically relevant finding that the drink that one consumed in the day affected your BMI. All that was affected was ones energy intake for the day, which would increase, but the body could adjust to those increased levels, and those levels would have to be maintained extensively to cause a change to BMI.

That's all for now!

Giant Greg Out.