Stressed kids eat even when they’re full - Lack of Resilience ?

For all you One Stroke at a Time readers, This insightful article touches on some points parents might consider for resilience building skills for yourself and your kids. 

It suggests one of the factors driving obese kids could be a lack of underlying social and emotional resilience, leading to an inability to properly cope with and manage day-to-day life stress's, eating not for fuel but for comfort. I suppose many of us parents could learn from this as well with the side benefit of heart healthy living. Enjoy the commentary...

PENN STATE / JOHNS HOPKINS (US) — Children who overreact to stressful situations will eat even if they’re not hungry, raising their risk of becoming overweight or obese, a new study shows.

Children whose cortisol levels stayed high after being exposed to a stressor had the highest BMIs and consumed the greatest number of calories in the absence of hunger. (Credit:iStockphoto)

“Our results suggest that some children who are at risk of becoming obese can be identified by their biological response to a stressor,” says Lori Francis, associate professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State. “Ultimately, the goal is to help children manage stress in ways that promote health and reduce the risks associated with an over- or under-reactive stress response.”

For a new study published in the journal Appetite, Francis and her colleagues, Elizabeth Susman, professor of biobehavioral health, and Douglas Granger, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research at Johns Hopkins University, recruited 43 children ages 5- to 9-years-old and their parents.

Straight from the Source

Read the original study

DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2012.11.008

To examine the children’s reactions to a stressor, the team used the Trier Social Stress Test for Children, which consists of a five-minute anticipation period followed by a 10-minute stress period.

During the stress period, the children were asked to deliver a speech and perform a mathematics task. The team measured the children’s responses to these stressors by comparing the cortisol content of their saliva before and after the procedure.

The researchers also measured the extent to which the children ate after saying they were not hungry using a protocol known as the Free Access Procedure. The team provided the children with lunch, asked them to indicate their hunger level and then gave them free access to generous portions of 10 snack foods, along with a variety of toys and activities. The children were told they could play or eat while the researchers were out of the room.

The team found that, on average, the children consumed 250 kilocalories of the snack foods during the Free Access Procedure, with some consuming small amounts (20 kilocalories) and others consuming large amounts (700 kilocalories).

“We found that older kids, ages 8 to 11, who exhibited greater cortisol release over the course of the procedure had significantly higher body-mass indices [BMI] and consumed significantly more calories in the absence of hunger than kids whose cortisol levels rose only slightly in response to the stressor,” Francis says.

“We also found that kids whose cortisol levels stayed high—in other words, they had low recovery—had the highest BMIs and consumed the greatest number of calories in the absence of hunger.”

The study suggests that children who have poor responses to stressors already are or are at risk of becoming overweight or obese. In her future work, she plans to examine whether children who live in chronically stressful environments are more susceptible to eating in the absence of hunger and, thus, becoming overweight or obese, Francis says.

“It is possible that such factors as living in poverty, in violent environments, or in homes where food is not always available may increase eating in the absence of hunger and, therefore, increase children’s risk of becoming obese.”

The Children, Youth and Families Consortium at Penn State and the National Institutes of Health provided funding for this research.

Source: Penn State

Athletes Back to School Nutrition

Dear Friends,

As we send our kids back to school (especially our young athletes) its important to remember nutrition from natural sources, less supplementation and removing processed foods that are high in fat, triglycerides and cholesterol's.

Here is a great article from Swim Science that applies to all sports, including softball, football and even cheer leading:

Back to school nutrition is one of many changes swimmers face as they head back to school. In this post we’ll discuss some important considerations for keeping young swimmers optimally fueled during the school year.  It’s ironic that coaches will plan workouts down to the second, rely on high tech video cameras to correct strokes,  we’ll remove hair from the entire body to save hundredths of a second during championships, yet nutrition is often an unregulated free-for-all.    

Meal Timing

Does anyone see the irony of athletes (all ages) boasting of their dedication to train twice a day for 5-6 hours, yet they can’t devote ten minutes to preparing a halfway decent breakfast?  Swimmers partially get a pass here due to getting up long before dawn, but preparing a smoothie or finding something moderately nutritious still takes less time than the drive through at McDonald's!

Although breakfast is generally accepted as important, there’s surprisingly little research formalizing its value in youth athletes.  That said, commonsense indicates the importance of a stable blood sugar throughout the day, plus the need for adequate calorie intake. Better to fuel more regularly during the by including breakfast, rather than make up for calorie deficit later in the day (or run a chronic deficit).  Preparation for afternoon practice starts the moment you wake up.

Despite the obesity epidemic in the general population, young swimmers often have difficulty consuming adequate nutrients.  Not only may chronic malnourishment result in poor performance, it may also result in poor health and increased rehab time.  Nothing is more frustrating to athletes of any age than to do all the right things for prevention and rehab of musculoskeletal injuries only to make no progress.  Sometimes injuries are more than just muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones.

Studies have shown that poor nutrition, especially in female athletes, is significantly correlated with musculoskeletal injury (Reinking 2006, Rauh 2010).  Though we might surmise that ground contact might cause most injuries in terrestrial sports, the latter study (Rauh 2010)did include swimmers.  Authors did not find a statistically significant relationship of any particular sport driving the overall results.  The exact mechanism behind the nutrition/injury connection is unclear (lack of nutrients,persistence of inflammation, hormonal stress are three possible areas), but it is clear that better nutrition can have protective and recuperative effects in young swimmers.

Hydration

Energy drinks often augment or replace meals, especially during the school year.  It’s a quick and easy solution when morning homeroom starts a mere thirty minutes after the last set ends in the pool.  Kids (and adults) don’t get enough sleep which can lead to lasting fatigue when coupled with training hard and having a heavy load at school,.  Woe to the kid that misses intervals in practice but tries to blame last night’s science project and last week’s midterms for slow swimming.  What’s the quick and easy solution…

One thorny area is the distinction between energy drinks and sports drinks.  Though sports drinks (Gatorade, Powerade, etc) are generally deemed safe and effective for young swimmers, energy drinks(Red Bull, Rockstar) are still uncertain. Because they are so new, there simply isn’t much non-company sponsored research on young athletes on which to evaluate their safety.  Still, sports drinks aren’t entirely risk free due to their high calorie and sugar content.  As for energy drinks, the American Council of Sports Medicine (2010) notes,

“Using energy drinks instead of sports drinks for rehydration can result in ingestion of potentially large amounts of caffeine or other stimulant substances and the adverse effects previously described. Of additional concern is the intentional use of energy drinks by adolescents who desire stimulant effects to combat fatigue and increase energy during sports and school activities.”

Supplements vs. Real Food

We adults, as a whole, do a poor job of providing kids with optimal nutrition choices, and ironically the situation doesn’timprove at sporting venues.  In one study from Australia, “Parents reported that their child's most frequently purchased food and beverage items at outdoor sports fields were water, chocolate and confectionery, soft drink and sports drinks, and ice cream. At community swimming pools the most frequently purchased items were ice cream, followed buy snack foods, including chips, cakes and biscuits.” (Kelly 2008)

Kids end up supplementing because they don’t have the basics in the first place, leading to more involvement with supplements than is necessary.  The school year is a ripe time for supplementation as it offers an easy shortcut around meals.  However, lack of quality nutrition is not the only reason for supplementation (“because the pros do it” is another reason…). 

“A major concern for health professionals and the sporting community is that the effects of supplement use on the growth and development of children and adolescents are unclear. Minimal experimental research exists regarding the performance enhancing qualities or adverse effects of ergogenic substances focusing exclusively on adolescent athletes under the age of 18. Many physiological changes are occurring during these developmental stages thus making it difficult to fully understand the physiological implications of regular consumption of supplements by this age group.” (McDowell 2007)

In sum, ssupplements occupy a relatively lawless frontier.  Whereas food recommendations are highly regulated (whether you agree with all of them is a different matter), the supplement industry often operates outside the realm of normal oversight.   No matter what the time constraints, do your best to obtain your young athletes’ nutrition from real foods.  

Conclusion

Despite these warnings, I do recognize the importance of practicality: It’s entirely unrealistic to wake up to sauteed egg whites with meat from the local butcher and buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup you harvested in your backyard, accompanied by a fruit potpourri from the farmer’s market.  An instant breakfast shake is sometimes the best a kid can do, but we still must be aware of the pitfalls in meal timing, hydration, and use of supplements.  Avoid the pitfalls in theseareas to ensure you don’t thwart your kids’ efforts in the pool. 

Swim Lesson Part 2 - Video

My Journey to Swim the English Channel has taken a bit of a detour, as this seasons attempt was washed out by bad weather, but now reflecting on my three year Journey am today announcing that I have launched an even larger and ambitious goal that will take me around the world, back to the English channel at some point, swimming one body of water at a time. 

As part of this Journey I have committed myself to teaching kids and parents about being or becoming more resilient through the lens of my experiences. This is a multi-year perhaps decade Journey.

I am speaking at schools (just completed a 1000 student Junior High), business events and social clubs using a short video montage of swim experiences to communicate the Journey and to entertain subliminally linking the ups and downs, the success and failure, the day-to-day challenges to myself, family and friends to the message of resiliency.

I am a teacher, just an ordinary Joe, but strongly feel these skills are essential to changing our society from the sometimes over coddled, under parented/over parented issues that now grip our kids and families.

Putting in the Mileage -2 1/2 months until Dover & US Nationals 25k

I continue following the training plan and this week logged 45,000 yards, in the past seven days have been in lakes more now than the pool. This will continue to be the plan from here on out. Switching to much longer weekend swims 5k (3.1 miles) minimum and heading to 10-15k range over the next few weeks.

In two weekends the US Masters Nationals for the 25k (15.5 mile) distance are being held in Indianapolis so this will be a good strong workout day for me. This is the same lake (Morse) I have been now for a number of swims so it comfortable and well known. But 70 very talented national caliber people are entered and it will be crowded until things stretch out. Since my goal is Dover and the English Channel this will simply be a 6-7 hour workout for me. Charlie Hiltunen, one of my long time friends will be kayaking and providing support for safety and food stops this day so the kayak will be full of food and we'll both need lots of sun screen.  

USMS 25 K Photo's