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Novel Health Data Display Can Lead to Taking In Fewer Calories
Improving health by enhancing health literacy and motivating healthy behaviors has been an objective of health educators and policymakers for quite some time. But the the escalation of obesity and sedentary behaviors suggest new approaches may be required.
“We need a more effective strategy to encourage people to order and consume fewer calories from restaurant menus,” said Meena Shah, Ph.D., of Texas Christian University, senior researcher of a new study in The FASEB Journal.
“Brisk walking is something nearly everyone can relate to, which is why we displayed on the menu the minutes of brisk walking needed to burn food calories,” said Ashlei James, lead researcher and graduate student.
The study enlisted 300 men and women ages 18-30.
“The group was randomly assigned to a menu without calorie labels, a menu with calorie labels, or a menu with labels for the minutes of brisk walking needed to burn the food calories,” James said. “All menus contained the same food and beverage options, which included burgers, chicken sandwiches/tenders, salad, fries, desserts, soda, and water.”
The results indicate that the menu displaying the minutes of brisk walking needed to burn food calories led to fewer calories ordered and consumed compared with the menu without calorie labels.
Interestingly, there was no difference between the menu with calorie labels and the menu without calorie labels in the number of calories ordered and consumed by the subjects.
“This study suggests there are benefits to displaying exercise minutes to a group of young men and women. We can’t generalize to a population over age 30, so we will further investigate this in an older and more diverse group,” Shah said.
“This is the first study to look at the effects of displaying minutes of brisk walking needed to burn food calories on the calories ordered and consumed.”
The study was eye-opening for many of the subjects. “For example, a female would have to walk briskly for approximately 2 hours to burn the calories in a quarter-pound double cheeseburger,” said Shah.
Source: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Infant Responses May Predict Later Antisocial Behavior
Specifically, scientists discovered infants who sweat less in response to scary situations at age 1 show more physical and verbal aggression at age 3.
Lower levels of sweat, as measured by skin conductance activity (SCA), have been linked with conduct disorder and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents.
Researchers hypothesize that aggressive children may not experience as strong of an emotional response to fearful situations as their less aggressive peers do; because they have a weaker fear response, they are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior.
Psychological scientist Stephanie van Goozen, Ph.D., of Cardiff University and colleagues wanted to know whether the link between low SCA and aggressive behaviors could be observed even as early as infancy.
Researchers attached recording electrodes to infants’ feet at age 1 and measured their skin conductance at rest, in response to loud noises, and after encountering a scary remote-controlled robot. They also collected data on their aggressive behaviors at age 3, as rated by the infants’ mothers.
The results, published in the journal Psychological Science, revealed that 1 year-old infants with lower SCA at rest and during the robot encounter were more physically and verbally aggressive at age 3.
Interestingly, SCA was the only factor in the study that predicted later aggression. The other measures taken at infancy — mothers’ reports of their infants’ temperament, for instance — did not predict aggression two years later.
These findings suggest that while a physiological measure (SCA) taken in infancy predicts aggression, mothers’ observations do not.
“This runs counter to what many developmental psychologists would expect, namely that a mother is the best source of information about her child,” van Goozen notes.
At the same time, this research has important implications for intervention strategies.
“These findings show that it is possible to identify at-risk children long before problematic behavior is readily observable,” van Goozen concludes.
“Identifying precursors of disorder in the context of typical development can inform the implementation of effective prevention programs and ultimately reduce the psychological and economic costs of antisocial behavior to society.”
Source: Association for Psychological Science
Surprised and scared infant photo by shutterstock.
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