If Your Child Indulges in Sweets After Meals, They Will Most Likely Be Overweight: Study

To understand what is eating in absence of hunger, researchers examined children who indulged in sweet and salty snacks right after their meals.

Children with a sweet tooth were more aggravated when their sweet treats were taken away from them. They also had higher propensity to gain excess weight than kids who chose salty foods or didn't complain over removed snack, revealed the study.

According to senior study author, Julie Lumeng, developmental and behavioral pediatrician at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, it is perhaps the biology of these children that makes them crave for sweets as their was no difference in household or family traits.

"This behavior is probably inborn," Lumeng said by email.

"Our study suggests that those kids who particularly like sweets are at greater risk of weight gain," Lumeng said. "Depending on the child, some families may need to be more vigilant than others about keeping sweets out of the house and limiting how easily accessible they are."

Since the study experiment was conducted in children's homes, their lunches may have been different that could have influenced the study findings. The authors also noted that families that had educated mothers, were more likely to snack after meals.

In the study, researchers also took low-income families into account and the findings were similar to other studies that linked eating sweets after meals to obesity in more affluent families, Lumeng said.

Poverty may also impact the snacking habits as the kids do not always have the access to required amount of daily food intake, especially irregular availability of healthy foods, said Dr. Lenna Liu, a pediatrician at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children's Hospital who wasn't involved in the study.

To prevent their kids from snacking mindlessly, parents need to establish strict rules about meal timings and provide adequate access to healthy foods.

"Limit, but do not overly restrict sweet foods," Liu said. "In particular, limit sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda or juice - have them drink water or lowfat milk."