Progress 09/01/02 to 08/31/06

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The main aim of this project was to determine the effects of serving large portion entrees at meals on eating behavior and 24-hour intake in an ethnically diverse sample of 5-year-old children and their mothers. A secondary aim was to identify predictors of individual differences in children's responsiveness to portion size. This project successfully completed all of the proposed research activities including the recruitment of 59 Hispanic and African American preschoolers and their mothers, the completion of 2 separate 24 hour periods of observation in which maternal and child intake of reference and large food portions were measured, and other maternal self-report, anthropometric, laboratory measures were obtained. Data analyses were also successfully completed to address the research aims. The findings demonstrated that large food portions promote excess daily intakes among Hispanic and African American children and their mothers. Individual differences in children's intake of large food portions were unrelated to weight status, maternal intake of large food portions, and child ethnicity. Dissemination of the findings took place in through an oral presentation of the findings at the annual meeting of The Obesity Society and at eight invited lectures given nationally on children's eating behavior given to health professionals including clinical dieticians, community dieticians, and Extension specialists. The findings were also published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2007 and in a review article on food portion size published in 2008 in Physiology and Behavior. PARTICIPANTS: Jennifer Orlet Fisher, PhD was the PD of this project and had responsibility for the overall design, conduct, and dissemination of the results. Dr. Issa Zakeri was the senior statistician on this project and provided consultation on all aspects of the work. Dr. Leann Birch and Dr. Barbara Rolls from the Pennsylvania State University served as collaborators on the project. They participated in the design of the research and manuscript preparation as well as consulted on technical issues that arose throughout the project. Angeles Arreolas, MS was the project coordinator and was responsible for the day-to-day conduct of the research including recruitment, data collection, and data entry. This project also partially employed 4-6 salaried and hourly research staff members over its course, two of whom were USDA/ Debakey High School for Health Professions Valedictorian/Salutatorian Program students. Avance Head Start Programs located in Houston TX acted as partner organizations in this project by facilitating recruitment of children and their mothers. TARGET AUDIENCES: The dissemination of the findings in scientific journals and at scientific meetings generally served the academic community interested in children's nutrition and eating behaviors. The dissemination of the results through these outlets and invited national lectures also served a broader audience of practicing public health professionals and policy makers interested in food portion size issues. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: There are no project modifications to report.

Impacts
The primary outcome/impact of this project was a change in scientific knowledge of portion size effects on young children's short-term regulation of energy intake. This experimental research is the only to date to evaluate and demonstrate an effect of food portion size on children's intake beyond a meal. The results revealed that children do not adequately compensate for increased intake from large portions, such that daily energy intake was significantly (~10%) higher when the size of the main dish at each meal and at a snack was doubled. In agreement with other adult studies, an effect of portion size on daily energy intake was also seen among mothers. This research extended previous research on portion size by demonstrating effects in an exclusively Hispanic and Black sample. These findings collectively advance scientific understanding of the role of large food portions in the development of overweight and obesity among preschoolers by characterizing the effects of large portions on children's daily energy intake. That weight status and maternal intake of large portions were uncorrelated with children's intake of large portions suggests that the effects of food portion size are general and not specific to overweight children or homes where mothers consume large portions. In this case, the import of portion size for energy balance should be determined primarily by the extent of children's routine exposure to large portions. Additional research is needed to understand why some children are more susceptible to over-consume large portions than others.

Publications

• Fisher, J.O., Birch, L.L, Rolls, B.J. (2007). Effects of large portions on daily intake in low-income Hispanic and African American pre-school children and their mothers. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Am J Clin Nutr, 86, 1709-16.
• Fisher, J.O., Kral, T.V.E. (2008). Supersize-me: environmental influences on the behavioral controls of food intake in young children. Physiology and Behavior, 94, 39-47.