DALLAS – Kids who eat in restaurants often are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, according to a novel study presented here.
The study is believed to be the first to link eating out and heart disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, and diabetes risk factors, such as poor insulin sensitivity. It adds to earlier research showing that children who eat out frequently are more likely to be overweight.
“This is about what is going to happen to kids if we don’t teach them a better way of life,” said lead author Karen Olson, a registered nurse and executive director of the Cardiovascular Research and Education Foundation of Wausau, Wis. “We can’t afford what we are asking for.”
The study, which was presented at the American Heart Association’s annual scientific sessions, involved 621 Wausau elementary and high school kids, who were part of study looking at heart disease and diabetes risk factors.
Among those children, 126 ate out more than four times a week, not counting school lunches.
Compared with the 495 children who eat out fewer than four times, they had more high blood pressure, lower levels of HDL cholesterol (the good kind), smaller LDL cholesterol particle size – an established heart-disease risk factor – and more insulin insensitivity, which is an early warning sign of Type 2 diabetes.
Most of the differences were modest, but several were statistically significant. For instance, the average blood pressure of the kids who ate out often was 110/70, compared with 106/66 in those who ate out fewer than four times a week. HDL cholesterol was 45 for youngsters who ate out often compared with 47 for those who did not.
The children who ate out often also had diets that were higher in starch, sugar, sodium, fat and cholesterol. In addition, they drank an average of six cups of soda and other sugary soft drinks a week, compared with 3.7 cups for the children who ate out fewer than four times a week.
Four out of 21 meals should not make a major difference in food intake, Olson said, suggesting that dining out often is a sign of eating a lot of fast food such as frozen pizza and macaroni and cheese at home.
Olson said most parents were unaware their children were developing risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. Most of the parents said they ate out with their kids because of time constraints.
“They were alarmed,” she said. “A lot of people thought it wasn’t affecting their kids.”
The children who ate out often also tended to be more sedentary, although researchers did not find a significant difference in weight between the two groups.
“It may be that if just hasn’t caught up with them yet,” Olson said.
On average, they spent 3.6 hours a day in sedentary activities such as watching TV, compared with 2.8 hours in the kids who ate out fewer than four times a week.
Most studies of the children’s eating habits have focused on weight, said Joseph Skelton, medical director of a program for overweight kids at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, who was not a part of the study.
“This was a very well-done study to make the big jump to cardiovascular risk factors,” said Skelton, who also is a lecturer at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “It’s just more proof that we need to change what we are eating.”
However, making the change to a healthier diet is hard for families, especially those who spend a lot of time eating while watching TV, which tends to take children’s attention off how much they are eating, he said.
Merely curtailing eating out is not likely to end the problem, said Lawrence Appel, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University and vice chairman of the Heart Association’s nutrition committee.
“There are also problems with the home front,” said Appel, who was not a part of the study. “The types of food consumed at home can still be high in salt, sugar and fat.
“Companies have done a pretty good job of finding what stokes our pallets,” he said.
A good start would be to eat smaller portions and reduce the amount of high-calorie foods, he said.
“There is no silver bullet,” he said.
The study involved second-, fifth-, eighth-, and 11th-graders who were part of the 8,776 students in the Wausau School District.
It was funded by the Wausau Heart Institute and other community sources.
Comments are no longer available on this story