Trick-or-treat wisdom: Study says kids will eat sweet treats despite hunger levels

It's a commonly held belief that children are better at listening to hunger cues than adults.

Many parents assume their young children will stop eating once they're full, unlike adults who can ignore physical satiety cues and overindulge more easily.

Yet a new study suggests that parents, perhaps especially those of diabetic children, should keep a better eye on their children's candy consumption this Halloween season.

In analyzing how 3- and 4-year-old children responded to the temptation of high energy treats (sweet and savory snacks), researchers found that 100 percent of children opted to eat despite consuming a filling, healthy lunch only 15 minutes prior.

"Of the 37 children who took part in the study, all children displayed eating in the absence of hunger, even though more than 80 percent reported being full or very full just 15 minutes earlier," said Holly Harris, study author from Queensland University of Technology.

The risk of food-pushing practices

Diabetic children must learn to read hunger and other physiological cues in order to stay alive, which is where food-pushing practices (pressuring children to clean their plates) can be dangerous, Harris said.

"For example, in boys it may be that controlled feeding practices such as encouraging boys to finish everything on their plate may compromise their ability to determine their own hunger," she continued. "Therefore they may be more likely to eat and overeat in the presence of highly palatable snacks."

Infants will not consume excess food due to built-in brain mechanisms that control hunger cues, yet young children who are constantly exposed to a culture of "over-consumption" may learn to disregard these cues.

"Preserving this ability to self-regulate energy intake early in life may be the key to resisting environmental stimuli to eat, later in life," Harris concluded.

The study is published in the journal Eating Behaviors.

Source: Queensland University of Technology