A family dietary program that offered monthly nutritional counseling and online computer support helped parents and children cut their daily intake of fat and sugar.
Although the counseling lasted for only 8 months, changes were sustained throughout the 12-month study, wrote Damien Paineau of Nutri-Health, in Rueil-Malmaison, France.
Nutri-Health is a company that conducts clinical trials and writes reports in support of the nutritional effects and health benefits of food products.
The study shows that an inexpensive counseling intervention, priced at about $1.50/person per day, may be a beneficial tool in the fight against obesity, wrote the investigators (Arch. Ped. Adolesc. Med. 2008;162:34–43).
The randomized controlled trial included 1,013 parent/child pairs (2,026 individuals) who underwent anthropometric measurements, including height, weight, and body mass index (BMI), and were asked to track their nutritional intake for 1 year.
Group A was told to cut fat to less than 35% of daily calories and increase complex carbohydrates to more than 50% of daily calories; Group B was told to cut fat to less than 35% of daily calories, limit sugar to 25% of daily calories, and increase complex carbohydrates to more than 50%; Group C was given general nutritional information and asked to track their nutritional intake but not given any individual advice.
The intervention groups also received monthly 30-minute phone counseling sessions, and access to a Web site with support information (questionnaires on diet, activity, meal preparation and quality of life; updated study information; and an individual, interactive agenda).
At baseline, parents' mean age was 40 years, and mean BMI was 24 kg/m
Compared with the control group, both adults and children in the intervention groups successfully decreased daily caloric intake, with Group B achieving a greater reduction than Group A (children, 96 vs. 60 calories; adults, 153 vs. 107 calories).
Both intervention groups achieved the nutritional goal for fat reduction. Only Group B achieved the goal of reducing sugar intake, and only Group A achieved the goal of increasing complex carbohydrates.
As expected for growing children of this age, there were no significant differences between the intervention and control groups in any anthropometric measures, with the exception of a trend toward decreasing BMI in all three groups.
When the researchers divided the children by BMI, however, they saw that overweight children in the intervention groups stabilized their BMI.
“This finding is interesting because the BMIs of 27 overweight children not participating in the study but attending the same schools increased during the year [by 36%]. The result may indicate that participating in an educational program may improve BMI in overweight children, whatever the intensity of dietary coaching,” they wrote.
Parents in Group B benefited the most, with small but significant decreases in BMI, fat mass, and hip circumference, compared with parents in the control group.
There were no differences in activity levels in any group among adults or children.
The nutritional changes occurred in the first 3 months of the study and were maintained, even after the monthly counseling sessions ended, “suggesting that such changes were sustainable in the context of the study,” the authors wrote.