YES - Which eating habits make you overweight?

YES - Which eating habits make you overweight?

According to the Obesity in America organization, obesity prevalence has been increasing in America across all age groups and geographical regions. Among adolescents 12 to 19 years old, the prevalence of being ‘overweight’, also called pediatric obesity, has more than tripled since 1976, rising from 5% to 16%.

One suggested cause of this rise in obesity rates is changing eating habits. An eating habit refers to what and how a subject usually eats. As reported by CNN, Americans’ increasingly busy lives are leading more people to rely on take-out, fast food, and easy-to-fix convenience food. Hurried eating often leads to overeating, which can lead to obesity. When the human body needs fuel, the stomach and intestines send chemical signals to the brain that induce a feeling of hunger. The perception of hunger causes the person to eat. A person can also be motivated to eat from appetite. Appetite is independent of hunger and results from outer food temptations, such as sights, smells, and discussions. Other chemical signals induce satiety, the sense of fullness that inhibits hunger and appetite signals. A satiety signal is sent to the brain when a person eats, but it is not processed for about twenty minutes. This delay causes rushed eaters to overeat before sensing fullness. Overeating can lead to a person being overweight. Some foods stay in the stomach and intestines for longer, so they continue to stimulate satiety signals, which makes the person feel full for longer after eating the same number of calories. Some of these foods are those high in fiber, such as fruits and vegetables.

Based on this information, I conducted a study to investigate the associations between time- and fiber-related eating habits and obesity, as judged by Body Mass Index, or BMI, in adolescents. On average, subjects had lower BMIs-for-age if they stayed at the dinner table after eating or ate dinners that required lengthy preparation by someone else. They also had lower BMIs-for-age when they ate more daily servings of vegetables. The other investigated eating habits did not appear to directly correlate with BMI-for-age.