ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — If you ever want to make parents of small children hit the roof, tell them there’s no such thing as a sugar high. Then stand back.
The idea that sugar consumption causes instant hyperactivity was firmly debunked almost 20 years ago, but try telling that to a mom as she watches her child bounce off the walls after a piece of birthday cake.
The concept gained wide acceptance in the 1970s, but a definitive study in 1994 put the kibosh on the theory and, as Dr. Richard Klasko wrote for The New York Times in 2020, subsequent reviews of the research continue to confirm it.
“Still, limiting your child’s sugar consumption is a good idea,” adds Klasko. “Though cutting down on sugar will not affect children’s behaviour, it may help to protect them against obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.”
Read more
Iran to St. John’s
Helping understand obesity is one goal Roya Samshi hopes to achieve through research into the effects of sleep, diet and screen time on childhood behaviour.
As part of her master’s thesis, Samshi is recruiting children aged 9-12 for a study under the supervision of Memorial University biochemist Dr. Scott Harding.
“The rate of obesity in Newfoundland and Labrador is higher than the rest of the country,” said Samshi, whose husband is doing a post-doctorate degree in computer science at MUN. She followed him here from Iran last winter after getting accepted into her graduate program.
“By finding significant results in our data, maybe we can increase attitudes and increase the knowledge of people about obesity and the factors that affect obesity, and try to help them.”
"... maybe we can increase attitudes and increase the knowledge of people about obesity and the factors that affect obesity, and try to help them.”
— Roya Samshi
Samshi was a dietician in western Iran before moving to Newfoundland and Labrador.
She says there is a major lifestyle differences between the two cultures.
Here, she sees people eating takeout food two or three times a week.
“In Iran, most of the people spend a lot of their time cooking their food and preparing their food at home,” she says, though she admits the lifestyle is more westernized in the capital of Tehran.
“In Iran, every meat that people consume is halal. There is no other meat. Here, because we grow up in that way, automatically, me and my husband look for halal meat.
Choices made by children and parents make a big difference, she says.
“When some habits during childhood become a routine, it will be a great help in adulthood to prevent disease.”
Wide net
Harding, who hopes to seek further research funding when this study is complete, says the data collected this time will be very preliminary.
Only 30 children — half male and half female — will be chosen for the week-long study. During that time, they will wear bracelets that track activity and sleep time. And over two 24-hour periods, they will also be asked to record everything they eat and drink.
Harding says screen time and sleep in children is not a well-researched area.
“There’s absolutely no data for Newfoundland children on this particular topic. And everybody is realizing that screen time is a problem,” he said.
And the interrelation between all three factors — diet, screen time and sleep — will be difficult to tease out.
“That’s where it starts to get really tangly to figure out where’s the cart and where’s the horse,” he said. “Is the screen time affecting the sleep, or is the screen time affecting the food intake? And then is the sleep disrupted because of the screen time or is it disrupted just because of the kid’s lifestyle?”
With touch screens having been around for a while, the time is ripe to examine these interrelations.
“You have a whole generation of people now — young adults who grew up with them — but you’ve got another generation that has never been without them. They’ve always had access to them, probably before they could speak.”
Parents interested in participating can email [email protected] or call 864-4711. More information can be found on their Facebook page.
Peter Jackson is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering health for The Telegram.
Sleep, eat and stare: MUN researchers recruiting kids to study their diet and lifestyle habits - Saltwire
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment