Dietary Messages for Obesity
What You Need to Know Before You Apply
What is the purpose of this trial?
This trial aims to discover how different dietary messages can influence eating habits and health in parents and their children. Participants will explore one of three approaches: increasing fruits and vegetables, decreasing snack foods, or a combination of both. The study seeks families with children aged 6-12 who have a healthy BMI (a measure of body fat based on height and weight) and at least one overweight parent willing to attend meetings. Participants should be comfortable communicating in English and plan to stay in the area throughout the trial.
As an unphased trial, this study offers families a unique opportunity to contribute to valuable research on nutrition and health.
Do I have to stop taking my current medications for the trial?
The trial information does not specify whether you need to stop taking your current medications.
Is there any evidence suggesting that this trial's treatments are likely to be safe?
Research has shown that eating more fruits and vegetables benefits health. One study found that people who consume more fruits and veggies tend to gain less weight and are less likely to become obese. Another study found that programs encouraging increased fruit and vegetable intake can improve heart health and make it easier for people to access sufficient food. The World Health Organization recommends consuming more than 400 grams of fruits and vegetables daily to maintain health and reduce the risk of certain diseases.
The evidence on eating fewer snack foods is mixed. Some studies do not find a strong link between snack consumption and obesity. However, reducing snack times might help manage obesity in children. Eating fewer snacks and doing so less often might help prevent weight gain.
Combining these two approaches—eating more fruits and vegetables and reducing snack intake—could be most beneficial. Better access to healthy foods like fruits and veggies is linked to lower obesity rates. Choosing fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks can also support a healthy diet.
Overall, these dietary changes are generally easy to follow and can lead to better health.12345Why are researchers excited about this trial?
Researchers are excited about these dietary approaches for obesity because they focus on simple, accessible changes that families can make together. Unlike standard treatments that might rely on medication or intense lifestyle changes, these approaches emphasize increasing fruits and vegetables or decreasing snack foods, which are practical and sustainable goals. By encouraging gradual changes in diet, these treatments aim to help families develop healthier eating habits over time, potentially leading to lasting weight management and better overall health.
What evidence suggests that this trial's dietary messages could be effective for obesity?
Research has shown that eating more fruits and vegetables can help reduce obesity. For example, one study found that encouraging people to eat more fruit lowered obesity rates. Eating more vegetables also led to a small weight loss over four years. In this trial, participants in the "Increase Condition" arm will focus on increasing their intake of fruits and vegetables. Conversely, eating fewer snack foods, especially those high in sugar and fat, can reduce childhood obesity rates. Participants in the "Decrease Condition" arm will work on reducing snack food intake. The "Increase + Decrease Condition" arm will combine these strategies—eating more fruits and vegetables while cutting down on snacks—which has been shown to improve diet quality and help manage weight. Overall, strong evidence supports that these dietary changes can improve health and reduce obesity.15678
Who Is on the Research Team?
Hollie Raynor, PhD, RD
Principal Investigator
University of Tennessee
Are You a Good Fit for This Trial?
This trial is for families with a child aged 6-12 within a healthy weight range and an overweight parent willing to attend meetings. Both must speak English and not plan to move during the study.Inclusion Criteria
Timeline for a Trial Participant
Screening
Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial
Treatment
Participants receive dietary interventions focusing on increasing fruits and vegetables, decreasing snack foods, or both, over a 6-month period
Follow-up
Participants are monitored for changes in dietary intake, physical activity, and other health metrics after the intervention
What Are the Treatments Tested in This Trial?
Interventions
- Decrease Snack Foods
- Increase Fruits and Vegetables
- Increase Fruits and Vegetables and Decrease Snack Foods
Trial Overview
The study tests three diet messages: increasing fruits and vegetables, reducing snack foods, or doing both. It aims to see how these messages affect what families eat and their health.
How Is the Trial Designed?
3
Treatment groups
Experimental Treatment
A parent and child will be encouraged to increase fruits and vegetables. Children will be encouraged to consume 1 cup/day and 1.5 cups/day of whole fruit, and 1.5 cups/day and 2 cups/day of vegetables for children aged 6 to 8 years and 9 to 12 years, respectively. Children will gradually work towards these goals. Parents will also work towards F\&V goals, with 2 cups/day of whole fruit and 2.5 cups/day of vegetables.
Families will be encouraged to increase fruits and vegetables and decrease snack foods.
In the Decrease Snack Foods condition participants will reduce intake of SFs (i.e., candy, cookies, cakes, ice cream, chips, nuts) to \< 3 servings/week (for children aged 6 to 12 years, the solid fats and added sugar energy limit is 840 kcals/week and the DECREASE goal will help with meeting this limit). Children and parents will gradually work towards meeting these goals and self-monitor these behaviors.
Find a Clinic Near You
Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Lead Sponsor
Published Research Related to This Trial
Citations
Effect of reducing ultraprocessed food consumption on ...
Reducing UPF consumption in children's diet has the potential to substantially reduce childhood obesity rate among children and adolescents in the USA.
Using health primes to reduce unhealthy snack purchases ...
This field experiment showed that health priming strongly reduced the purchases of high-calorie snacks among overweight consumers. Overweight ...
Snack Food, Satiety, and Weight - PMC
Snacking led to reduced hunger and increased fullness, although no differences in postsnack perceived hunger or fullness were observed between the low-protein ...
Snacking is associated with reduced risk of overweight and ...
Snackers, compared with nonsnackers, were less likely to be overweight or obese and less likely to have abdominal obesity.
The effect of discretionary snack consumption on overall ...
Three key outcomes were reported: weight status (n = 35), energy intake (n = 11), and diet quality (n = 3). Increased discretionary snack ...
Snacking characteristics and patterns and their ...
Diet is a well-established modifiable risk factor for obesity and targeting snack occasions specifically may be beneficial in children. Data from the National ...
Ultraprocessed Foods and Obesity Risk: A Critical Review ...
According to a recent multinational cohort study, there is only a 15% greater risk of becoming overweight or obese in people who are normal weight and a 16% ...
8.
ers.usda.gov
ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2012/december/gobbling-up-snacks-cause-or-potential-cure-for-childhood-obesityGobbling Up Snacks: Cause or Potential Cure for Childhood ...
If done on a daily basis, all else equal, this simple behavior could result in about half a pound less of body weight at the end of a month. ...
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