There are plenty of reasons out there why children and adults shouldn?t be eating fast food regularly, including an increased risk of heart disease and a high level of obesity. Now recent research has shown we have another one to add to that list ? intelligence.

Studies have shown that children who eat junk food on a regular basis are less clever than those on a healthy diet. It is the first time a link has been discovered between junk food ? which typically contains a high level of fat and sugar and little nutritional value ? and a child?s academic ability. The finding may well cause many parents to rethink what they feed their children. Parents will need to think how snacks like hamburgers and hot dogs might affect a Childs test scores as well as their weight.

More than 5,500 children between the age of 10 and 11 were tested as part of the study. The children are at an age when many in the UK would be taking tests to determine their future academic life. The results found that there was a significant drop in test scores amongst those who ate fast food regularly, even after taking into account social and economic factors.

The average score in literary tests is 141.52, but children who had been eating junk food three times a day saw their scores drop by nearly 20 points. Those who ate junk food a more casual 4 times a week still found that their scores dropped by nearly 10 points. The study found similar results when looking at average maths scores.
Researchers said that it?s possible that rather than the food affecting scores, unseen factors such as parents attitude to school and involvement in a child?s education could also have been contributing factors.

Kerri Tobin, leader of the research conducted at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee stated: ?Continued investment in school nutrition plans, and curricula designed to make pupils and parents aware of the academic consequences of their food choices, would be one positive step that schools could take.?

Since the eighties doctors have been recommending that pregnant women put on weight during pregnancy, regardless of their weight at the start. The suggested extra of around 15-30 pounds was believed to reduce the chances of fetal death or other complications during birth giving women a great reason to enjoy food throughout their pregnancy.

However recent studies show that this may not actually be useful, and doctors claim that women don?t need to eat for two, but more ?one and 1/20th. Not quite as appealing, by any account.

The study led by Yvonne S. Thorton, MD, MPH set out to test whether established guidelines made a difference in birth outcomes amongst obese women. The study followed 232 obese women. Half were told to eat, essentially, whenever and whatever they liked. The other half was put on a diet which included a daily food dairy. First group gained an average weight over 30 pounds, while the second only slightly above 11. 23 patients even lost weight during their pregnancy.

Dr. Thorton, who works as a clinical professor at New York Medical College stated: ?Women who are obese when beginning a pregnancy are, by definition, unhealthy. To say that they should gain even more weight is counter-intuitive, and our study bears that out.?

There were no deaths or other complications in the group that had been made to diet, and there were fewer babies weighing over 10 pound, which is good news as any birth over 10 pound can cause hazards to both child and parent.

Women on the diet also gained less weight, had fewer c-sections and retained less weight after the pregnancy. Quite impressive results, although it?s worth noting that all the people in the study group were obese, with a BMI of over 30, and the results don?t apply to other women, yet.

?Gaining weight during pregnancy contributes to obesity?, Claims Dr Thorton, who believes that attitudes like this have contributed to the obesity epidemic in the states, were 35% of adult woman are labelled as obese. ?It makes it that much harder for overweight women to return to their normal weight after pregnancy.? she concluded.

The debate about how parents should approach the eating habits of their children has been raging for some time, with various studies and tests offering up consumers a mix of different opinions ranging from their crucial involvement in picking their child?s diet to studies that show that controlling what children eat can actually lead to fatter adults in the long term.

A new study by researchers at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is one of those that are challenging the long held assumptions by claiming that whatever parents do or don?t do in regards to their children?s eating habits actually has very little effect. The study concludes that traditional methods of instilling nutritional behaviour in kids may need some rethinking.

Youfa Wang, MD, PhD and senior author of the study explained: ?Child-parent dietary resemblance in the U.S. is relatively weak, and varies by nutrients and food groups and by the types of parent-child dyads and social demographic characteristics such as age, gender and family income?

The study included data from over 16,000 people which contained information such as their demographic, economic and health backgrounds as well as their diet. The studies took place between 1994 and 1996. The research found only weak links between the diet of parents and children across the board. It suggested that the reasoning for this may include a mixture of outside family influences such as a child?s school and friends — and in older years — the child?s own self esteem and body image.

Results differed slightly by children?s age and family income, but generally kept to similar results and didn?t highlight any particular need for dedicated education or concern in any one area.

Wang concluded: ?Our findings have a number of important public health implications. In particular, the overall weak to moderate parent-child resemblance in food groups, nutrients and healthy eating index scores suggest that interventions targeting parents could have only a moderate effect on improving their children’s diet.?

Losing weight is easy, you know. At least, it is easy providing you?ve got the cash to pay for expensive diet food and medication, gym membership, a personal trainer, a dietician? But what if you?re one of the normal every day people that actually can?t afford the extra cost of gym membership in a recession, or someone who balks at the idea of having to nearly double their food bill because healthy options don?t come cheap.

Here are a few tips in order to combat that. They?re all simple little changes you can make to your lifestyle that cost either nothing or very little and can make a huge impact on the effectiveness of your diet if followed correctly.

Out

When at the supermarket, don?t be drawn in by special offers and deals until you?ve done the math, and be aware about the way supermarkets draw in customers by using special marketing techniques. Even the layout of the store is designed to make you buy more, but don?t relent ? stick to buying only what you need. The two key things to do before going shopping are to eat before your trip and to make a list of everything you need. The list will keep you focused on what you require rather than what you want, and it?s a well researched fact that people who shop when hungry are far more likely to buy excess food.

Consider buying canned food instead of frozen. Canned vegetables may taste a little different but they are still very nutritious and if you use them in recipe combined with other food, there?s a good chance you won?t notice the difference. Your wallet will though, with canned vegetables considerably cheaper than their frozen counterparts.
Shopping at the same store will help you quickly plan your way around, but it has another bonus in that you?ll get to know which store brands are worth buying. Try to avoid totally budget and basic brands and instead opt for the supermarket own brand products which are likely to remain rich in nutrients while being much cheaper than branded products. Which products you buy branded and which you don?t will be a matter of personal taste, but try to buy as little as possible from big name companies.

Outside the supermarket, don?t forget the power of walking and jogging. You might need to invest in some decent shoes but after that, they the activity is totally free. Many people buy expensive gym memberships only to then drive all the way to the Gym. If these people had instead jogged the same distance, they could often have lost a similar amount of calories.

At home

You can exercise at home using DVDs and exercise videos. Although these might look expensive you?ll find a vast amount of budget copies of exercise videos in your local charity and second hand stores. You can also visit your local library which is likely to have quite a large amount of its DVD collection dedicated to health and fitness.

Before going out, be realistic about any food you might need. There?s no use saving money at the supermarket if you then don?t pack enough for lunch and then end up using expensive vending machines to make up the difference.

While at home, consider buying a water filter for your tap or fridge and then drink tap water instead of bottled water. They may look nice and talk about spring water coming all the way from Italy or somewhere, but in reality they are incredibly expensive diversions and often don?t taste any different to filtered tap water. If you absolutely have to buy bottled water, buy supermarket brands and try to buy it in bulk as much as possible.

A little sugar is nothing to be ashamed of, and although it can be replaced by sweeteners in your tea and coffee, sometimes there?s nothing quite like sprinkling a little on your cereal in the morning, or indulging with luxury chocolate. Indeed, even if you?re dieting, it can be difficult to avoid sugar which is used not only to sweeten food but add texture, mass, pliability and crispiness. It?s an easy assumption to think we have a good idea what foods have a high amount of sugar in them. Show anyone a can of full fat soft drink and they?ll tell you it?s full of sugar, but will they do the same for a healthy looking chicken meal or a load of bread?

Considering how much attention has been weighed on the amount of salt in your food ? the government ran a series of adverts warning of the dangers of salt a few years ago – sugar has remained largely out of the spotlight. This is the despite the fact that it can cause a variety of problems in high consumption including diabetes and tooth decay. It is also one of the leading contributors of obesity in adults today.

Sales of health food have rocketed in the last decade as we are continuously told that modern unchecked diets are making more people unhealthier and obese than ever before. It?s easy to assume that supermarkets will have played to this fact, offering foods that are lower in sugar, salt and fat than they did years ago. This isn?t the case however, especially in the case of sugar, whose usage has doubled since the 1970s. In some cases such as bread and cereal, the amount of sugar has actually doubled in thirty years.

A survey conducted by ?Which?? Magazine found that certain chicken ready meals from the leading supermarkets contained more sugar than a standard service of ice cream. In some cases healthier items labelled with brands like Weight Watchers actually had more sugar in them than their standard counterparts, added to compensate for the lack of salt and fat.

So how can you cut down on your intake of sugar? Here are a few tips:

? Chocolate and sweets are well known for their sugar quantity and although healthier foods might include more than we expect, it?s still chocolate that is one of the main offenders when it comes to sugar consumption. If you don?t want to give up on chocolate completely, consider forcing yourself to cut back by buying smaller ?fun size? bars.

? Switch drinks like coke to diet, but be aware that ingredients like aspartame (which replaces sugar in many soft drinks) have also been claimed to be detrimental in large amounts. Less well known is that fruit juice is also high in sugar, so be wary when buying and dilute them first.

? Foods such as cheese, meat and fish are generally much lower in sugar content than other foods but the sauces and condiments like ketchup can contain a high amount, so watch out what you?re putting on your food.