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 Researchers examined data on eating habits among 150 families in
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, with children 5 to 7 years old. The
study team surveyed participants on three separate occasions about
what they ate and drank over the previous 24 hours.
When researchers only looked at meals kids ate, children had an
average so-called Healthy Eating Index (HEI) score of 55.3 out of a
possible 100 points for an optimal diet, the study found. But when
researchers also looked at snacks, kids' average scores rose to
57.1.
"Among the children included in the current study, snacking was
found to contribute positively to overall diet quality," lead study
author Katie Loth of the University of Minnesota and colleagues
write in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
"However, snacking was also found to contribute to children's mean
consumption of refined grains and sugar sweetened beverages," Loth
and colleagues write.
With only meals counted, children averaged 3.9 servings of refined
grains like white bread and 0.4 servings of sugary beverages like
sodas and fruit drinks, the study found.
Including snacks, kids got 5 daily servings of refined grains and
0.54 daily servings of sugary drinks.
Children in the study got an average of 1,215 calories a day from
meals alone, and an average of 1,581 daily calories when researchers
looked at both meals and snacks.
Including snacks, children got an average of 1.08 servings of fruit,
1.29 servings of vegetables, 4.26 servings of protein, and 2.15
servings of dairy each day, the study found.
Counting only meals, they averaged barely two-thirds of a serving of
fruit daily, 3.88 servings of protein, and 0.59 servings of
vegetables, suggesting that snacks can help kids get more of the
healthy foods they need, the study team writes.
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Snacking appeared to make a bigger difference in overall diet
quality for boys than for girls. Excluding snacks from diet analysis
contributed to a 2.5-point drop in diet quality scores for boys but
just a 1-point dip for girls.
The impact of snacking on diet quality also appeared to vary for
different racial and ethnic groups.
Diet scores with and without snacks were similar for
African-American children, at about 49, the study found. Average
diet scores rose from 59.1 with meals only to 61.1 including snacks
for Hispanic kids; from 53.4 to 54.7 for Hmong children; from 53.4
to 56 for Native American kids; from 60.2 to 62.7 for Somali youth;
and from 56.7 to 58.6 for white children.
The study wasn't a controlled experiment designed to prove whether
or how snacking might directly improve diet quality or health
outcomes for children.
Beyond its small size, another limitation of the study is the
potential for parents to provide inaccurate or incomplete
information about kids' eating habits in dietary surveys, the study
team notes. It's also possible results would be different elsewhere,
or for other racial or ethnic groups.
"Future research should seek to better understand influences on
children's food choices at snack times and barriers to serving more
healthful foods as snacks that are faced by ethnically or racially
diverse families," the study team concludes.
"Long term, the development of interventions that aim to improve
children's consumption of healthful foods at snack times should be
pursued," the researchers add.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2sGLuVP Journal of the Academy of Nutrition
and Dietetics, online November 25, 2019.
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