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Could this talking plate prevent childhood obesity? Health, Diet and Fitness Today - 06/01/10

Posted: 06/01/2010 at 06:45pm by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness

When I envisage how to tackle the issue of childhood obesity, my mind runs wild with thoughts, campaigns and how role models could be better utilised. One thing I have never thought of, however, are talking plate scales that track how quickly food is eaten.

Yet that’s exactly what is being trumpeted today as the potential answer to youth overeating.

The Mandometer keeps tabs during meal times and tells the user if they are wolfing down meals too fast - a habit that experts have linked to weight gain.

In a trial with 106 obese children the gadget showed promising results, the British Medical Journal reported.

After 12 months of use the children weighed less and ate smaller portions. Their speed of eating was reduced by 11% compared with a gain of 4% in a comparison group.

Think back to your childhood – were you ever told by your parents to make sure you cleared your plate? You may well have been rewarded with dessert too for the achievement. Well, the report states the fact that eating too fast interferes with our body’s inbuilt signal which lets our brains know when we should stop eating, which is triggered when our stomachs become full.

Parental commands such as ‘make sure you eat it all up’ teach us to override these signals, meaning we’ll often eat more than we need to at mealtimes as adults too.

Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm set out to design a device to pace eating, primarily to help patients with the eating disorder bulimia, who tend to eat quickly.

The boringly-titled Mandometer plots a graph showing the rate at which food disappears from the plate, compared with an "ideal" graph programmed in by a food therapist.


The machine teaches the user to monitor portions, and to eat more slowly

And if the user is eating too quickly, the talking machine will tell them.

Inspired by this work, researchers at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children and the University of Bristol, decided to try out the device on their young, obese patients.

Lead researcher Professor Julian Hamilton-Shield said: "It really did seem to help them."

He said the children learned how to eat more slowly and, as a result, felt full sooner and ate less.

"Their portion sizes decreased by a seventh. Even though this may not sound a lot, it is enough to make a difference.

"And the improvement seems to be durable because it continued six months after the trial finished."

He said people should aim to take at least 10 minutes to eat meals, ideally sitting at a table rather than in front of the TV.

"What tends to happen when we eat alone or while watching the TV is we eat more quickly. Then we miss the signals that tell us we are full up and to stop eating."

In honesty, I hope this isn’t the shape of childhood obesity prevention to come, as it is something that with a gentle educational nudge, parents could and should be doing for their kids themselves.

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