TAIPEI, Taiwan, Apr 15, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Fast-food and soft drinks may
boost children's risk of obesity, but they also make them happy, U.S. and
Chinese researchers have found.
Hung-Hao Chang of National Taiwan University and Rodolfo Nayga of the University
of Arkansas said programs aimed at tackling childhood obesity -- by reducing
children's consumption of unhealthy food and drink -- are likely to be more
effective if they also actively seek to keep children happy in other ways.
Chang and Nayga used data from the National Health Interview Survey in Taiwan, a
nationwide survey carried out in 2001, to examine fast-food and soft drink
consumption, body weight and level of happiness of 2,366 children ages 2-12.
Fast-food included French fries, pizza and hamburgers; soft drinks included soda
and other sugar-sweetened beverages.
One-quarter of the children in the survey sample were overweight or obese and
about 19 percent sometimes or often felt unhappy, sad or depressed.
The study, published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, found children who ate
fast-food and drank soft drinks were more likely to be overweight, but they were
also less likely to be unhappy.
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