WASHINGTON—Overweight adolescents ate fewer times per day and were not as hungry when they were taught how to make healthier food choices and snack on a nutrient-rich, satiating snack of peanuts or peanut butter, according to data presented at the Obesity Society 27th Annual Meeting.
The study targeted frequent snacking and the number of eating episodes as part of the intervention. Participants in the study were Hispanic middle-school children who were part of a larger weight-loss study funded by the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). The findings show that combining education with the provision of a healthy, satiating snack, such as peanuts, can be effective at normalizing adolescent eating patterns and impacting weight.
"Teaching the kids what is healthy and showing them how to make changes in their diets by providing peanuts or peanut butter as a snack was simple and made sense to them. This approach helped us tackle a big problem—adolescent snacking," said Dr. Craig Johnston, instructor at the Behavioral Medicine Research Center and the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who conducted the study.