It’s easy to point the finger at junk food advertising as a factor that would cause obesity in adulthood based on messages solidified in our minds during childhood. That said, new research is calling that logical-sounding rational into question. Instead, it is suggesting that it’s not the ads that are causing our weight struggles later in life but is rather our socio-economic environment.
Childhood Socio-Economic Environment Might Cause Obesity
A team of researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada published a paper in the Behavioral Sciences journal in which they suggested that stressful childhood environments can be considered to be a cause of obesity later in an individual’s life. The paper challenges the concept that junk food advertising is what is planting the seeds for the obesity epidemic to spread throughout the United States and much of the rest of the world.
Stress triggers the appetite, explained the study’s authors, consumer psychology researcher Jim Swaffield of the Alberta School of Business and Qi Guo, a Faculty of Education researcher. They stated that this is a fact that has been long known and accepted.
What the researchers examined was how stressful conditions endured during childhood translated in the brain as a desire to consume foods that were calorie-dense throughout the rest of their lives. The research paper helps to explain why people who grow up in lower socio-economic environments and who endure chronic stress throughout that time are also likely to experience higher rates of obesity.
The Obesity Risk Research
The study involved the participation of 133 men and 178 women (for a total of 311 participants). Each were shown random images of foods from the six major food categories, including:
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Grains
- Dairy
- Meat/poultry
- Sweets
The participants were required to rate each food item’s desirability. They were asked the question “How desirable is this food item to you right now?”. They were then required to rate the item on a scale of one to seven, with seven being extremely desirable.
The foods were divided into two groups of equal size based on their calorie content. Those that contained under 1.49 calories per gram were labeled as low-energy-dense foods. Those with 1.5 calories per gram or higher were labeled as high-energy-dense foods.
Once the foods were rated, the participants answered a number of questions regarding their early childhood socio-economic environment and their current stress levels. Finally, they answered another questionnaire to determine whether they had an appetite based on actual hunger from low glucose levels (state appetite) or whether they had a desire to eat regardless of whether actual hunger was present (trait appetite).
Childhood Stress and Socio-Economic Status Can Cause Obesity
What the researchers determined was that the harsher the socio-economic environment of a participant’s childhood, the more food motivated participants were likely to be and the more likely they were to have a trait appetite. Those raised in safer socio-economic conditions were more likely to have a state appetite.
This suggests that socio-economic status during childhood can cause obesity later in life. The researchers had their own hypotheses and beliefs as to specifically why this is the case, but further study is required to determine that for certain.
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