Plant Foods and Plant-Based Diets by Newby - Research Paper Example

The article “Plant foods and plant-based diets: protective against childhood obesity” by Newby (2009), reviews the epidemiology literature to ascertain the role of the plant-based diets, as well as plant foods on the childhood obesity. Newby, through the review of various literature, found out that plant foods, plant –based diets alongside vegetarian diets associate closely with promotion of health and prevention of diseases among the adults, however Newby found limited number of studies conducted on plant-based diets on the child health, as well as the role of these plant-based diets in preventing childhood obesity. According to this article, in 1970s and 1980s, the vegetarian children were somewhat lighter and leaner as compared to the none-vegetarian and the vegetarian diets were more preferred by the omnivorous diets following various ethical and environmental reasons alongside other factors such as human disease prevention and human health promotion. Other related studies in line with human nutrition including studies by the national representative Youth sample aged between 8 to 18 years, showed that in the U.S. the vegetarianism is quite low among children with estimations ranging between 2 per cent and 3 per cent. While reviewing other studies, Newby found out that there is profound global burden of the childhood obesity and of now, one child in ten children is found to be overweight worldwide. In the U.S. in particular, the prevalence of childhood obesity was found to rate highest, in which case, 33.6 per cent of children whose age range between 2 and 19 were overweight in the years 2003 to 2004, with 17.1 per cent reported to be obese. It is notable in this study, as well that there are high health disparities among Mexican American children who reported the highest burden, with a score of 37 per cent obese, followed by the non-Hispanic blacks with 35.1 %, the non-Hispanic whites, on the other hand, have 33.5 per cent. Most notable is the fact that obesity does pose a threat to both the current and future health status of children leading to a broad range in terms of the consequences of physical, as well as psychosocial health. Thus, as outlined in this article, preventing obesity or overweight is the only solution for making sure obesity is stemmed of as an epidemic. The plant based diet that this study refers to include vegetables; cereals and grains, the high-protein food such as soy, beans and legumes, and the fiber. This study did not take into consideration animal studies and studies in adults. This article made use of fruit and vegetables as mentioned above. Using secondary data, the articles indicate that basing on the 1999 – 2000 Survey data for the National Health and Nutrition Survey, children do take in much far less relative to what is recommended by Pyramid and these ranges from 3.4 less or more by 0.2 total servings for the girls who age between 4 to 8 years to about 4.2 plus or minus 0.3 servings daily for girls aged between 14 to 18 years. For the boys, they had slightly higher intake for each of the age group 3.5 plus or minus 0.2 and 4.6 plus or minus 0.3 servings daily. From the analysis of results, vegetables and fruit are found to be low-energy –dense foods contributing to the safety and sanitation. This article notes that fruit and vegetables might end up displacing other high-energy-dense foods from the diets such as baked goods and salty snacks. The study clearly outlined that the intake of vegetables and fruit increased slightly with the rise in the income among the adults of US. According to this article, so far, there are approximately 14 studies that examine vegetable and fruit consumption with respect to 10 cross-sectional studies and one case control study. This article did not find any prospective studies that show an association between childhood obesity and consumption of fruit or vegetables. In this respect, the study found that among the preschool children with ages between 2 to 5 years, fruit consumption with or without fruit juice, as well as vegetables without potatoes did not significantly relate to changes in the overall body mass index for models adjusted for the non-dietary and dietary confounders. According to this article these finding were similar to the reports among children of the same age that, as well observed that there was lacking significant association between fruit, carrots, potatoes, and the BMI z-score. Additionally, the study found that intake of fruits did not have a significant association with change in the BMI z-scores and vegetables. Concerning the grains and ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, this article noted that grain foods, which include whole grains and foods that are made from grains including bread, pasta, ready-to-eat cereals, tortillas, are the foundation of most diets. The article notes that the staple grains that are consumed by adults and children do vary with culture and geographical region and these include foods such as wheat or rice. In line with RTE cereal, the article noted that the research is consistent in showing that the RTE cereal is quite protective against the gain in weight, as well as obesity in children, though prospective studies that show a better adjustment for the potential confounders are required. The study highlights that there are lacking evidence that supports the protective association of the RTE cereal and the whole grains on the waist circumference. There are few studies this article found that talk about other grain and for the few that are available, their findings are inconsistent. The conflicting results, as noted by this article, might be as a result of grouping dissimilar food types together alongside whole and refined grains, as well as their products. As far as beans, soy and legumes are concerned, the protein-rich plant foods including legumes, beans, as well as soy products were found to play a significant role in the plant-based diets, as well as in vegetarians in meeting the human protein requirements for growth and health, according to this journal. Although, the study found out that intakes of these food types are higher in some other parts of the world, consumption, among the Americans it is quite low. In respect to the three mentioned food products, this article noted that most studies done in this area show that there are not statistically associated with obesity. The association were not either significant for the BMI z-score. Generally, this article however, noted that there were limited evidence concerning the relation between body weight and legumes. For the case of ascertaining whether there existed a significant association between fiber and child obesity, the articles first, started by highlighting important issues pertaining this subject. In this, respect, the study noted that foods are often rich in different types of fibers with fiber contributing limited energy of about 2 calories. Through the review of various articles pertaining this association, this article noted that fiber content is one of the mechanisms in which plant foods can be related to childhood obesity. With limited evidence, one cross-sectional study showed that a significant protective effect. According to this article, studies done on adults indicated that the effect of fiber on the intake of food and body weight wholly depends on the fiber type and food sources. However, the Newby did not find prospective studies that could examine the roles of fiber in the maintenance of body weight and in the prevention of obesity in children. Last but not least, this study sought to find out if plant-based dietary patterns had any association with the child obesity. The article found only but two published studies that had examined the association between the obesity of children and the empirically derived plant based dietary patterns, and none of them indicated a protective effect. The two studies were cross-sectional. Conclusively, this article highlights that among the adults, the plant-based dietary patterns are inversely associated with the weight in body, as well as BMI in the well designed prospective studies. One thing that is quite clear about this study is that it failed to ascertain clearly if there existed an association between childhood obesity and plant-based diets. This follows a methodological error, as well as the scope of the research. Choosing to review studies with an intention to ascertain if there was the association between childhood obesity and plant-based diets was in itself a failure. Instead, the study would have considered carrying out an experiment or otherwise used a more robust method to ascertain if plant-based diets significantly affected childhood obesity. Reviewing articles alone was a limitation in terms of the scope of the study, since this study might have been done and documented in books or elsewhere. The conclusion reached in this article, therefore lacks a clear basis and cannot be relied upon. This is because failure in methodology gives a clear impression that the conclusion reached is not satisfying. Work Cited Newby, Philip K. Plant foods and plant-based diets: protective against childhood obesity? Am J Clin Nutr 2009 89: 1572S-1587S. Read More