It is much more difficult to change eating habits when you are older

A government funded program in Mexico, (which has an extremely severe obesity problem) allows families with overweight members to get cash provided they attend medical checkups annually and register for nutritional classes on a regular basis.

This innovative way of tackling obesity was once hailed as a world leading model to improve health in the nation but has now been called into question after a research project showed that in fact the families who received the most amount of money were more probable to have weight problems and suffer from hypertension.

The research which was conducted by scientists at the University of California and funded by the World Bank looked at 3,700 adults and evaluated them over a five to six year period. They clearly recorded a correlation between those who got the larger amounts of cash and those who were the most overweight.

The government program which is called Oportunidades has nevertheless had positive impact on the health of children and does appear to improve the quality of children’s diets and thus the likelihood of them becoming obese in the future. The research team led by Lia Fernald did speculate that it was possible that parents who were enrolled in the program were using the cash to buy healthier food for their children but were not actually changing their own eating habits.

It is much more difficult to change eating habits when you are older but children are more likely to follow healthy eating programs especially if their parents take the lead.The research which was published in the respected Journal of Nutrition was not conclusive in its findings and the research team said that more work needed to be done to fully understand the implications of giving families cash in exchange for education and nutritional advice.

Just recently in the United Kingdom the award winning Chef Jaime Oliver announced that he wanted the UK government to set up special food centres around the country to teach people how to eat healthily and how to cook properly. Over the last few years Ukmedix News has seen that the most effective weight loss programs involve education about nutrition and that it is especially important that children are taught all about healthy eating at a young age.