Case study: Energy balance

With a growing number of children in the UK suffering from obesity it has never been more important to understand the relationship that children have with food and exercise.

Professor Craig Williams in our School of Sport and Health Sciences has been working closely with Kellogg’s to investigate the food intake of children compared to their levels of activity and weight - in particular in the relationship to eating breakfast.

The project has revealed that factors such as who cooks a child’s food, how that food is cooked, and if a child skips breakfast, can affect their energy balance. Previous studies have always focussed on adults; this is the first research of its kind to be carried out on children.

How RKT helped

RKT established a relationship with Kellogg’s through the Link Fund which enabled Craig and Kellogg’s to fully scope out the project. RKT was then able to support Professor Williams with setting up and negotiateing the project scope and worked closely with Kellogg's to ensure that the projects was successfully set up in preperation for the work to go ahead. RKT also remain in touch with Kellogg's to ensure relationships are maintained and a further project has now been funded by Kellogg's to further the work as a result of this preliminary study.

The main bulk of the work involves recruiting children from local schools, who keep diaries on the food they eat and the activities they participate in. These volunteers also spend 1 to 1 time with the department’s trained nutritionalist, Melanie Moore, to understand the type of foods they eat. This data is then coded and categorised and used to look at how this compares to the volunteers’ weight and activity levels.

Kellogg’s commissioned the study so that they could get some hard evidence to relate how children’s activity level, breakfast and food intake is related to weight.  The project is ongoing at the University of Exeter, and should hopeful contribute towards a set of simple messages for Kellogg’s to put on the packaging of their cereals in order to promote healthier lifestyles for children.