The right novel can inspire weight loss in adolescent girls, a new study shows.
Pediatrician Sarah Armstrong, director of the Healthy Lifestyles Program at Duke University, and colleagues tracked obese girls ages 9 to 13 who were participating in the program, a comprehensive intervention for overweight children and teens.
The researchers had 31 of the girls read Lake Rescue, in the Beacon Street Girls series by Annie Bryant. In the novel, children go rock climbing, hiking and canoeing on a class trip to the mountains.
One character is an overweight girl who is ridiculed by her classmates. But on this trip, she learns to make better food choices and discovers that physical activity is fun.
The researchers gave 33 obese girls a different novel called Charlotte in Paris, a book from the same series that doesn't have an overweight heroine. And 17 girls didn't receive either book.
The findings, published online today in Pediatrics, show that at the end of six months, the girls who read Lake Rescue had a 0.71 drop in their body mass index (BMI) percentile, a number that incorporates age, height and weight.
Those girls who read the other novel had a 0.33 percentile drop, and those who didn't read a book had a 0.05 percentile increase. These differences were small but statistically significant, Armstrong says.
"This provides hope to parents that something as simple as an inspiring novel may help their kids make healthier choices and lower their risk of medical illnesses," she says.
Reading such a book is "a win-win-win situation," she says. "It promotes literacy. It helps kids achieve a healthy weight, and it enhances girls' self-esteem."
Armstrong says parents who want to help their kids make healthier choices can consider using advice from the North Carolina-sponsored message called "5-3-2-1-almost none." It's a daily recommendation to families to eat five fruits and vegetables a day; consume three structured meals a day; limit screen time (TV, computer) to no more than two hours a day; be physically active for at least an hour a day; and consume "almost none" of the sugary drinks.
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