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| Science & Technology |
| Duh: Obesity down in sugar-free schools |
| 2007-04-23 |
| Stockholm schools that banned sweets, buns and soft drinks saw the number of overweight children drop by six percentage points in four years, a Karolinska Institute study published on Monday showed. The number of overweight or obese six-to-10-year-olds dropped from 22 to 16 percent in the 10 Stockholm schools that participated in the study by banning sweets and introducing healthier lunches, the Swedish research institute said in a statement. A control group of schools that did not introduce specific food regulations saw the number of overweight or obese children rise from 18 to 21 percent. The results of the project were to be presented on Monday in Budapest at an international conference on obesity. "Our results show that programmes to reduce the increasing rate of obesity can be carried out within the schools' existing budgets," the head of the project, Professor Claude Marcus, said in the statement. "We also interpret the results to mean that clear regulations in schools can help parents to set standards for their children and improve dietary habits at home," it said. Here's how this works: Lots of carbohydrates raise blood sugar levels. Higher blood sugar levels call for insulin. High enough insulin levels tell the body that there is plenty of food and it is time to put on fat for the winter. Of course, simple carbs like sugars spike the insulin level even harder and the body reacts by putting on even more fat. On the other hand, low insulin levels tip the body to a fat-burning metabolism no matter how much sugar is in the blood. Low-carb diets work by taking advantage of these principles. Carbonated drinks are evil. They stretch the stomach. You need to eat more food for that stretched out stomach to decide that it is stretched enough to be full and then tell the brain about it. That signal takes the brain about 20 minutes to process. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #1 Stockholm schools that banned sweets, buns and soft drinks saw the number of overweight children drop by six percentage points in four years, a Karolinska Institute study published on Monday showed. Back in ancient history, in our basic intro to stats, we were told that statistical error was usually around 5%. So a 6% could be 6% or 1%. Particularly when multiple outside factors may come into play that are usually inconvenient to identify. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-04-23 20:37 |