Talking to mothers about sugar helps reduce obesity in kids

When mothers are told about the harmful effects of sugar, childhood obesity is brought down

Giving mothers plain facts about the health risks of consuming sugary drinks during pregnancy and early childhood may offer a new strategy to reduce childhood obesity. This is the conclusion of a new Columbia University Study.

The study was published in the journal Academic Pediatrics.

Why It’s Important

Obesity affects approximately 18 percent of children in the U.S. Recent studies show that obesity is growing fastest among young children between the ages of 2 to 5 years. According to some estimates, India has the second highest burden of obese children in the world.

“Emerging evidence suggests that regular consumption of sugary beverages, either by the mother during pregnancy or by the child before age 2, may increase a child’s risk of obesity later in childhood,” says the study’s lead author Jennifer Woo Baidal, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

According to some estimates, India has the second highest burden of obese children in the world

A recent study found that sugary drinks may be marketed more heavily toward low-income children and teens. 

Link Between Attitudes and Behavior

In a previous study, Woo Baidal and her team found that nearly 90 percent of parents and 66 percent of infants between 1 and 2 years old who were enrolled in a local Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, a nutritional supplementation program for low-income families, regularly consumed sweetened beverages.

Families with more negative attitudes toward sugary beverages were less likely to drink them or give them to their infants.

“We were surprised at how many parents and infants were regularly consuming drinks with added sugar. In order to influence behavior, we needed a better understanding of the factors that influence parents’ attitudes,” Woo Baidal explains.

Clearing Up Confusion about “Healthy” Drinks

In the current study, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 25 of the WIC-enrolled families from the previous study. Families were asked to respond to a variety of materials from public health campaigns and other interventions, including written messages and visual aids, about the sugar content and associated health risks of sugar-sweetened drinks.

Many families were confused about which beverages are healthy, the researchers found, and were surprised to learn that many juices and flavored milks contain large amounts of sugar.