Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Post-game treats linked to unwanted calories in children

1447995
1447995
minus
plus

Post-game treats can be detrimental to a child’s health as the number of calories kids consume from post-game snacks far exceeds the number of calories they actually burn playing in the game, researchers have found. “Kids are getting inundated with snack culture all the time — celebrations at school, at birthday parties and youth sports games, we don’t need to load children up with sugar after a game too,” said study senior author Lori Spruance from Brigham Young University in the US.


For the study, published in the American Journal of Health Behavior, the research team observed 3rd and 4th graders over 189 games of soccer, flag football, baseball and softball, tracking both their physical activity and the treats they consumed. They found parents brought post-game snacks 80 per cent of the time, with almost 90 per cent of the post-game drinks being sugar sweetened. Physical activity was tracked using the SOFIT method, wherein a child’s activity was tracked on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = nothing; 5 = running) every 10 seconds. The researchers found the average energy expenditure for children observed was 170 calories per game while the average caloric intake from post-game snacks was 213 calories.


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon