Background: Sustaining a hydration state and energy status during competition is important for athletes, yet there is no current evidence in the literature that halftime hydration and snacking practices of basketball and football players have been assessed. Under ideal circumstances, proper hydration and food consumption practices should be followed by basketball and football players before, during and after practices and competitions because both sports involve fast rate of energy utilization with a concomitant increase in sweat production. Objectives: This study aimed to improve our understanding of the halftime hydration and snacking practices used by basketball and football players at the collegiate and professional levels. Methods: A total of 122 subjects filled out a halftime habit survey. The survey was completely anonymous to protect the identity of the athletes participating in the study. Athletic trainers and coaches of basketball and football teams, athlete agents, other athletic team employees, and players were contacted and provided with copies of a questionnaire to distribute to athletes. Data were analyzed using PASW Statistics 18. Data for height and weight were analyzed using descriptive statistics and all remaining data were analyzed using crosstabs and included a Chi Square Test. Results: Of the beverages consumed by the 122 athletes surveyed, there was a statistically significant difference between sports in the consumption of Gatorade (n=89, p-.045), Powerade (n=41, p<.001), Powerade Zero (n=1, p=.020), and water (n=96, p=.049). There was a statistically significant difference between sports in the consumption of energy bars (n=62, p=<.001) and fresh fruit (n=41, p=.033). There was a statistically significant difference between sports in the purchase of snacks for halftime (p=.004) and the frequency of halftime snacking habits (p<.001). There is a statistically significant difference between sports in the halftime recommendations of teams for both hydration (p<.001) and snacking (p<.001). There is a statistically significant difference among sports in the influence of first half drinking practices on halftime hydration habits (p=.035). There is a statistically significant difference among sports in the extent of weight lost during a game (p<.001). Conclusions: The results of this study show that athletes have the time and resources to drink and snack a the halftime break to replenish glycogen stores and rehydrate for the second half of the game. Athletes, whether by recommendation or by habit, consume a variety of beverages and snacks during the halftime breaks of games. It is still uncertain as to whether or not these hydration and snacking habits actually replenish glycogen stores and rehydrate the athletes for the second half of games. Future studies should be done to determine whether the hydration and snacking habits are maintaining hydration and sustaining blood glucose for better performance.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Cassidy Scoggins, for the Masters of Science degree in Food and Nutrition, presented on November 19, 2009, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: THE EFFECTS OF A COMMUNITY-BASED LIFESTYLE INTERVENTION ON SNACKING PATTERNS, SCREEN TIME PATTERNS, AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEVELS AMONG ADOLESCENTS WHO ARE AT-RISK FOR TYPE 2 DIABETES MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Sharon Peterson Previous research has shown that overweight and obesity in adolescents is one of the leading risk factors for developing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). There are several risk factors for obesity that are modifiable in adolescents. Of these, snacking patterns, screen time, and lack of physical activity have an impact on the body weight and overall health of adolescents. The design of this "R.U.A. Healthy Kid?" study was a prospective cohort of 16 free-living adolescents at-risk for T2DM. Each participant was previously screened and found to have two or more risk factors for T2DM. The intervention targeted several components, however snacking patterns, physical activity levels and screen time levels mold the foundation for the current study. An overall "snacking score" was developed to measure the frequency and quality of snacking patterns of participants. After three months of intervention, participants' overall snacking score increased. Many significant relationships were found between the overall snack score, physical activity, and screen time questions, such as negative relationships between: "time on TV" and total snacking score and "time spent walking, biking, or jogging" and "unhealthy" snacking score. These results show how community-based lifestyle interventions that address adolescents' snacking patterns, screen time levels, and physical activity levels are crucial in the fight to overcome the T2DM epidemic now prevalent in adolescents.

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Purpose: Snacking is an important component of dietary intake yet remains understudied, particularly among adolescents who consume 25% of their daily calories from snacks. Previous research provides evidence that adolescents with overweight (OW) and obesity (OB) consume larger and more frequent snacks than adolescents with normal weight (NW). The objective of this study was to compare the food group composition of snacks by weight status as well as to identify snacking patterns and predictors among adolescents in the United States (US). Methods: Anthropometric, dietary, and demographic data from adolescents, 12-19 years old, in the 2005-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were analyzed. The mean of the two days of dietary recall was used to measure dietary intake, which serves as a proxy for usual intake. Mean equivalents of the 37 food components present in individual snack foods reported by each adolescent across two days of intake were estimated using the Food Patterns Equivalents Database. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to study the effect of mutually exclusive food component consumption groups. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze membership in relation to dietary quality (Healthy Eating Index 2015 [HEI-2015] scores), weight status (BMI & BMI Z-score), selected snacking parameters (e.g., mean snack calories), and socio-demographic (e.g., race, gender) covariates. Results: Adolescents with two days of reliable dietary recall data and complete anthropometrics were included in the descriptive analysis (n = 6423). Adolescents with NW consumed greater energy, vegetable, whole grains, refined grains, dairy, and solid fat from snacks than adolescents with OW and OB (p &lt; 0.05). LCA identified two main snacking patterns. The “Heavy Snackers” pattern was associated with higher consumption of each food component, total energy and snacking energy while the “Light Snackers” pattern was associated with lower consumption each food component, total energy and snacking energy. After adjustment for energy misreporting, OW or OB classification did not significantly increase the odds of being in either class while being classified with NW decreased the odds of being in the “Heavy Snacker” class. In addition, increasing BMI z-score and HEI-2015 total score increased and decreased the odds of being in the “Heavy Snackers” class respectively. The strongest predictors of a “Heavy Snacker” pattern were male gender, non-Hispanic white race, lower dietary quality, and increased snacking parameters, while female gender, all races except non-Hispanic white, better dietary quality, and decreased snacking parameters were strong predictors of a “Light Snacker” pattern. Conclusion: We can conclude that consuming less foods as snacks contributed positively to weight status and overall diet quality among US adolescents. Findings from this cross-sectional study remain consistent with snacking, diet quality, and weight status associations, but add to existing knowledge with the identification of snack consumption patterns. The dietary patterns derived may provide a useful basis for dietary interventions targeted at snacking among adolescents by recommending light snacking and low consumption of energy dense snack foods. Additional studies are needed to further understand what the main food pattern components are across gender and racial backgrounds and to confirm whether associations between snacking and weight status are due to food quality, quantity, or both. / Epidemiology

Thesis (M. Tech. Dept. of Hospitality, Tourism and PR Management)--Vaal University of Technology, 2009. / Background: Approximately 45% of South Africans are overweight, including 20% of children under six years of age. Snack foods are now targeted in the food industry, globally, as an obesity prevention initiative, focusing on children to ensure the adoption of a healthy lifestyle from an early age. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the nutritional status and snack consumption patterns of children (n=290) 9 to 13 years old in the Vaal Region at two purposively selected primary schools in order to develop a healthy snack food item that will address obesity in children from a very young age. Methods: A baseline survey included a pre-tested questionnaire, administered by trained fieldworkers to determine snack food consumption patterns. Anthropometric measurements included weight and height. A snack food item was developed to meet certain criteria identified from the literature and baseline survey. The methods included: snack food development and preparation, chemical analyses to determine actual content, microbiological tests to determine shelf life and sensory analyses to determine acceptability. Study design: Cross-sectional analytical study. Data analyses: Data of the questionnnaires were captured and analysed for descriptive statistics (frequencies, means and standard deviations). The anthropometric data were captured and analysed using the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards for 2007. Results: The results showed that the children in the sample knew the meaning of healthy snacks, although the majority (66.8%) consumed unhealthy snacks, especially from school tuck shops. The top ten snack foods most commonly consumed daily were: coffee (48.3%), tea (46.1%), crispy chips (39.1%), fruit juice (38.0%), chicken (35.1%), fried potato chips (33.6%), carbonated drinks (26.9%), biscuits (26.2%), toffees (26.2%) and yoghurt (25.8%). The majority (56.8%) of the respondents indicated that they receive between R2 and R5 per week for tuck shop money, besides their monthly pocket money (64.6%). Most of the respondents (45.4%) spend their pocket money on snack food items and these are mainly consumed while watching television (36.9%) and when bored (29.5%). The anthropometric results indicated that 11.7% of the group were underweight, 12.1% of the group were stunted; in addition 20% were at risk of underweight, and 23.4% at risk of being stunted. A significantly higher percentage of girls (16.81) were stunted compared with the boys (5.0%). Also 7.6% of the group were overweight. More girls were overweight compared with boys. A snack food item was developed to address obesity in this region. The criteria met were that it was affordable, at cost of R0.55 per 30g portion, was low in fat and had high-density nutritional value, with at least 20% of the DRI for protein and iron, had a shelf life of 28 days and was generally acceptable to the majority of the respondents. Conclusion and recommendations: This study showed that obesity is becoming a problem amongst children in the Vaal Region. Although primary school children knew healthy snack foods, their behaviour indicated a large consumption of unhealthy snack foods. A low-fat, low-energy, low-cost and acceptable snack food item was successfully developed to address the obesity problem in the region. Further research is recommended where this snack food item is implemented in an intervention study to measure its impact on the nutritional status of obese primary school children. / National Research Foundation

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Obesity is a growing problem in the United States. Research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of obesity is vital. One past study examined four eating behaviors in relation to obesity: eating beyond satiety, snacking, night eating, and feeling hungry within three hours of eating. Only eating beyond satiety was associated with obesity. The present study examined these same eating behaviors while correcting some of the flaws of the previous study. Using a cross-sectional design, university undergraduates reported on the frequency of the above-named eating behaviors. Current weight and height were collected. Multiple regression analyses determined that eating beyond satiety and hunger predicted body mass index (BMI). Race/ethnicity moderated the relationship between hunger and BMI. These findings have important implications for obesity treatment as well as suggesting important avenues for future research.

The World Health Organisation ([WHO], 2007) declared obesity as the public health threat of the 21st century. Currently, the Maltese adult population ranks as the heaviest in the Euro‐Mediterranean region. In response to a gap in Maltese research on the area of obesity and food consumption, this PhD aimed to gather local data to unearth behavioural‐psychological factors that could be implemented in local interventions. The focus of the PhD was narrowed to women with families based on literature that has identified motherhood as a salient point of transition that amplifies the weight trajectories for adult women. A mixed‐methods approach guided the methodology of the PhD programme with four studies carried out sequentially in two phases. The findings of the qualitative phase revealed that weight management for Maltese mothers was enmeshed with gender norm expectations surrounding motherhood. For mothers with a higher BMI, their relationship to food was a significant barrier to weight loss maintenance. Mothers with a lower BMI or who maintained their weight pointed at their food planning ability to manage their diet. The quantitative phase extended literature on the dimensional validity of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) (Van Strien et al., 1986) by reproducing its factor structure and ascertaining its reliability among Maltese women. This was the first validation of an eating behaviours assessment tool in Maltese and the first validation of the DEBQ in a Semitic language. Finally, Structured Equation Modelling revealed how food planning could act as a mediator to restrained and external eating styles to increase fruit and vegetable snacking and decrease high calorie snacking. In addition to the implications to theory, it is believed that these findings have worthy practical implications through tailored eating behaviour interventions, by targeting food planning to counterbalance the impact of external eating among Maltese mothers.

No description available.

BACKGROUND: While parents have central influence on children’s eating behaviors, an increasing number of grandparents participate in child feeding. The manner in which grandparents approach feeding young children as well as how that role is negotiated with parents is unclear. The purpose of the study was to explore maternal perceptions of grandparents’ influence on preschool aged children’s snacking and parental authority in child feeding. METHODS: Participants were 55 ethnically-diverse, low-income mothers of preschool children, aged 3 to 5 years. A qualitative design was employed where semi-structured interviews were used to examine mothers’ schemas around child snacks and the context of snacking. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Analyses used NVivo 10 to identify major themes using a grounded-theory approach. Participant demographics and household food security were assessed by self-report. RESULTS: Three major themes emerged regarding mothers' perceptions of grandparents. First, many mothers described supportive or positive aspects of grandparents’ involvement in child feeding: 1) building bonds with grandchildren, 2) providing healthy foods, and 3) setting limits. Second, at the same time mother believed grandparents often to be unsupportive partners in child feeding by: 1) offering “junk foods” and 2) being permissive regarding the types, frequency, and portion sizes of snacks offered to children. Third, mothers’ authority in feeding was challenged by grandparents’ approach to feeding children snacks when at odds with the mothers’ the mothers approach. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that grandparents may have important roles in family dynamics around feeding among low-income families with young children. / Urban Bioethics