by Amy Spangler
June 04, 2010

My stomach was full, but food remained on my plate. It’s not that I hated hot dogs and sauerkraut, but the portion before me was more than my 8-year-old stomach could hold.

I grew up in the post depression, post-war 1950s—a time when food security was highly valued. As children, six in all, our parents encouraged us to be members of the ‘Clean Plate Club,’ and we were aptly rewarded for eating everything on our plates at mealtime. What wasn’t consumed was placed (plate and all) on top of the refrigerator. No dessert (or other foods), until that plate was clean. Having hot dogs and sauerkraut for breakfast wasn’t tempting.

My parents’ intentions were good—food was to be valued; not wasted. But the unintended results were that me and four of my five siblings became pudgy, overweight adolescents and teens. Food became its own reward. Clean your plate and you could have dessert—cakes, pies, cookies, candies, and sodas.

When did eating become a pastime, unaffected by hunger and satiety? That’s what researchers Barry Popkin and Kiyah Duffey from the University of North Carolina were determined to find out. They compared nationwide surveys of 28,000 children and 37,000 adults conducted over a 30-year period in the mid-1970s, the mid-1980s, and the mid-2000s.

The results, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that the time between eating (meals or snacks) shrank by one hour for both groups—three hours for adults and three hours for children. Daily caloric intake increased for both groups from 2,090 in the mid-1970s to 2,400 in the mid-1990s to 2,500 in the mid-2000s. Snacks contributed more to the increase than meals. On average, adults consumed 200 calories from snacks in the mid-1970s, 360 calories in the mid-1980s, and 470 calories in the period between 2003 and 2006. Kids outpaced adults, consuming on average 240 calories from snacks in the mid-1970s, 420 in the mid-1990s, and a whopping 500 calories from snacks in mid-2000s.

Cause for concern
With kids (and adults) consuming more than twice as many calories as snacks today compared to the 1970s, the need for parents to monitor snack intake has never been greater. While snacks can be nutritious, even when children choose fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, the end result can still be more calories than are needed to maintain a healthy weight.

You can read countless advice columns and buy nothing but healthy snacks, but in the end it comes down to simple discipline—eat when you’re hungry—stop eating when you’re full. Makes you wonder what the obesity rates would be if adults and children alike did just that.