Thursday, October 27, 2016

No Causal Connection Between Sugar-Sodas, Fast Food, Candy, and Obesity

For almost everyone, there is no relationship between access to fast food and candy, and obesity.

Fast food, soft drink and candy intake is unrelated to body mass index for 95% of American adults

David Just & Brian Wansink
Obesity Science & Practice,
December 2015, Pages 126–130

Methods: Using 2007–2008 Centers for Disease Control's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the consumption incidence of targeted foods on two non-continuous days was examined across discrete ranges of BMI. Data were analysed in 2011. Results: After excluding the clinically underweight and morbidly obese, consumption incidence of fast food, soft drinks or candy was not positively correlated with measures of BMI. This was true for sweet snacks (r = 0.005, p  l.t.e. 0.001) and salty snacks (r = 0.001, p = 0.040). No significant variation was found between BMI subcategories in weekly consumption frequency of fast food meals.

Conclusions: For 95% of this study's sample, the association between the intake frequency of fast food, soft drinks and candy and BMI was negative. This result suggests that a strategy that focuses solely on these problem foods may be ineffective in reducing weight. Reducing the total calories of food eaten at home and the frequency of snacking may be more successful dieting advice for the majority of individuals.  

4 comments:

gator80 said...

Over 1/3 of Americans are obese. They are eating something that causes that. (Most evidence points to diet as the dominant factor in weight gain or loss relative to exercise.) I have been convinced by numerous studies that carbohydrates are the culprit. That includes sugared sodas and candy but much more, especially foods traditionally considered "healthy" such as breads, grains, starches. In which case their advice of reducing calories (eaten at home, for some reason) and snacking is off target and likely harmful.

Max said...

Why do.they still use BMW? The definition is just a combination of. Square meter to weight and has no relevance to muscle vs fat mass O-o
In that study even Mr Schwarzenegger would be obese...

havoc said...

More importantly, does it replicate?

Trapper_John said...

Max--BMI is correlated with heart disease and other ailments in numerous, numerous studies. The assumption you make is that this is related to fat content in the body, and I believe that is partially true. What is definitely true is that more mass = more tissue for the heart to supply with blood = more stress on the heart over time, REGARDLESS of the nature of that mass. BMI is a measure, not a judgement of lifestyle or character or how fit someone is. That measure is a good predictor of cardiovascular outcomes. That's it.