DRAFT Australian Dietary Guidelines - Eat For Health

Other factors: Although there were insufficient studies to make an evidence statement, other
factors associated with increased risk of overweight and obesity throughout life included:
being overweight in adolescence [78]
consumption of any take away food and low quality snacks [75-77]
childhood smoking [78, 83]
increased price of fruit and vegetables [68, 79]
low self esteem and/or depression [80-82]
low locus of control score [84, 85]
stressful family life [86, 87]
food insecurity [65, 81, 789]
self-reported dieting [76, 82, 790], particularly in girls [791]
inadequate sleep [60, 780, 792, 793]
low rates of breakfast consumption [794].
The literature review to inform the revision of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 found
strong and consistent evidence indicating that children and adults who eat fast food, particularly
those eating at least one fast food meal per week, are at increased risk of weight gain, overweight
and obesity. There was not enough evidence at this time to similarly evaluate eating at other types
of restaurants and risk of weight gain, overweight and obesity [143]. The US literature review also
found moderate evidence suggesting that children who do not eat breakfast are at increased risk
of overweight and obesity, with the evidence being stronger for adolescents [143].
There appear to be complex relationships between dietary patterns as a child and dietary quality
over time. Studies in the US suggest that frequency of consuming take away food increases with
age and is associated with higher intakes of energy, total fat, saturated fat and sodium [90], while
frequency of breakfast consumption decreases with age and skipping breakfast is associated with
reduced intake of calcium and dietary fibre [91]. There is some evidence that family meal patterns
during adolescence predict diet quality and meal patterns during early young adulthood [92].
The literature review to inform the revision of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 also found
a limited body of evidence showing conflicting results about whether liquid and solid foods differ in
their effects on energy intake and body weight, except that soup at a meal may lead to decreased
energy intake and body weight [143].
Finally, an emerging body of evidence documents the impact of the food environment on body
weight in children and adults. Moderately strong evidence now indicates that the food
environment is associated with dietary intake, especially lower consumption of vegetables and
fruits and intakes resulting in higher body weight [143]. This is discussed further in Appendix 7.
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