If your children eat more than three times a day, they will weigh less than kids who eat three or fewer meals. This is according to Greek researchers who looked at 11 past studies and also found that overall, these children were 22% less likely to be overweight or obese. Wellness experts believe that smaller meals, spaced out over the day, may aid weight control and the study results, which were published in Paediatrics, give further evidence to support this theory.
However, Alison Field, an associate professor of paediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a staff scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital, argues that the study, in which she was not involved, fails to prove cause and effect. Field notes that all 11 studies were conducted at just one point in time, so it’s impossible to know whether the children’s eating habits came before their extra pounds. Field says that some of the children involved may have started eating less often after becoming overweight, and you need studies where kids are followed over time to know which came first. She adds, ‘People who eat frequently may choose different foods compared with people who eat less often. Is it the eating frequency, or what you’re eating?’
According to registered dietician Connie Diekman, who also wasn’t involved in the research, the study ‘does not provide conclusive evidence.’ However, Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, believes that you should not view this study as a stand alone piece of evidence, but rather one of many into this area of wellbeing that fit together. ‘I view this study as one more piece in our understanding about meal frequency and weight, but not of itself an answer to, what do we tell consumers?’ she says.
However, Fields asserts that, while it is biologically plausible that eating frequency affects metabolism and weight control, it’s not clear why that is. Field says that the important thing to focus on is what your child eats, and how many total calories he or she gets. ‘If you’re eating frequently, but you’re eating fast food, that’s obviously not good,’ she says, adding that if your child is currently eating three big meals, you should not simply add snacks to that. ‘What you don’t want parents to do is add calories to what their child is already eating.’