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By Dr. Liji Thomas, MD Apr 28 2023 Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLM

A recent study published in the Appetite Journal examined how maternal mood, body image, and eating concerns were related to perceived changes in feeding practices during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Study:  Maternal mood, body image, and eating habits predict changes in feeding practices during the COVID-19 pandemic . Image Credit: Emituu/Shutterstock.com Background

With the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many profound changes occurred in the normal lifestyle of people around the world.

This included business, workplace, school, sporting, and shopping activities. The feeding of children is another area that was impacted by pandemic-related changes to the mother's pattern of activity.

Using data from an online mothers' study, a recent study looked at how mood changes and the mother's body image were linked to changes in feeding practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Introduction

Prior research shows that the way children are habitually fed is deeply influenced by the parent's eating habits and emotions associated with eating.

In particular, when parents eat for comfort or restrict their food intake despite feeling hungry, they practice eating patterns unlinked to their internal hunger or satiety signals. This, in turn, is associated with similar non-responsive child feeding patterns. Importantly, these are reflected with adverse impacts on the parent's and child's mental and physical health and the child's future eating habits.

Eating is a behavior designed to respond to hunger or satiety. The study explored three other types: emotional eating, in response to strong emotions; external eating, in response to food availability or other external cues; and restrained eating, where food intake is voluntarily reduced.

Body image is a powerful source of disordered eating behaviors in mothers. Maternal stress and negative moods may also trigger altered child-feeding practices. The pandemic was unquestionably associated with increased anxiety and stress among parents, with work-childcare conflicts being more likely to arise due to the shift of both workplace and education to the home. Related StoriesIs there an association between COVID-19 and the risk of developing an autoimmune disease?Vaccine component BNT162b4 enhances T-cell immunity against SARS-CoV-2 variants for reduced COVID-19 disease severityIs there an association between post COVID-19 syndrome and cognitive impairment?

In the current study, the scientists aimed to understand how these three factors – the mother's mood, body image, and eating habits, were linked to differences in child-feeding practices. These included non-responsive feedings, such as a behavioral reward, overt or covert restrictions, and meal structure.

The data came from an online questionnaire sent to 137 mothers. They were asked to describe their eating habits, mood, satisfaction with their body, and whether they had non-responsive feeding practices during the pandemic and during the pre-pandemic years. What did the study show?

The study's results indicated that non-responsive feeding practices partially differed during the pandemic.

Mothers used food to incentivize desirable behavior among children more often during this period. There was a decline in formal place-setting practices at the same time.

Mothers with greater self-reported stress, anxiety, and/or depression were less satisfied with their bodies. These mothers also were more likely to restrict food access by the child.

They were more prone to restrained eating as well as emotional eating. This was observed both before and during the pandemic. Anxiety was linked to greater use of reward eating during the pandemic but not before.

Body image dissatisfaction was linked to greater restrictions on the food accessible to the child before and during the pandemic. These mothers also showed more restrained eating and more emotional eating.  

Mothers who tended to eat emotionally were more likely to show more non-responsive child-feeding behavior during and before the pandemic. Thus, they were more likely to use food as a reward for good behavior and to restrict food access by the child. The only behavior that did not change was the structured meal setting.

The impact of the pandemic was observed only in a greater incidence of using food to reward the child for eating among those mothers with greater depression, anxiety, and/or stress levels. Such mothers were also more likely to eat emotionally. What are the implications?

Despite the immense disruption caused by the pandemic, the observed effects on child feeding were restricted to increased laxity in meal settings and a greater tendency to reward children when they behaved as desired.

The latter was more common among mothers with anxiety, depression, and stress.

There was no relationship between maternal mood and meal setting, indicating that factors such as social distancing and other restrictions in place, along with their effect on the purchase, preparation, and timing of food for meals, were more important in this observed shift away from formal meals during the pandemic.

Poor body image did not appear to influence child-feeding practices, and mothers appeared to react in opposite ways to the lack of social interactions – with some eating more, while others reported poor appetite due to a negative mood.

In future periods with similar situations…

…resources to support mothers who are experiencing anxiety and distress should be available and include content targeting child feeding behaviors."

Further research on how the pandemic affected child feeding and eating over time is indicated. Moreover, these findings emphasize the need to monitor and support mental health during such periods. Journal reference:

Rodgers, R., Sereno, I. and Zimmerman, E. (2023) "Maternal mood, body image, and eating habits predict changes in feeding practices during the COVID-19 pandemic", Appetite, p. 106576. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2023.106576. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195666323001290.

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US Supreme Court will not review IRS case involving Coinbase user data

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US Supreme Court will not review IRS case involving Coinbase user data

US Supreme Court will not review IRS case involving Coinbase user data

A lower court ruling will stand in a case involving a Coinbase user who filed a lawsuit against the IRS after the crypto exchange turned over transaction data.

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Solar and wind industry faces up to $7 billion tax hike under Trump’s big bill, trade group says

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Solar and wind industry faces up to  billion tax hike under Trump's big bill, trade group says

Witthaya Prasongsin | Moment | Getty Images

Senate Republicans are threatening to hike taxes on clean energy projects and abruptly phase out credits that have supported the industry’s expansion in the latest version of President Donald Trump‘s big spending bill.

The measures, if enacted, would jeopardize hundreds of thousands of construction jobs, hurt the electric grid, and potentially raise electricity prices for consumers, trade groups warn.

The Senate GOP released a draft of the massive domestic spending bill over the weekend that imposes a new tax on renewable energy projects if they source components from foreign entities of concern, which basically means China. The bill also phases out the two most important tax credits for wind and solar power projects that enter service after 2027.

Republicans are racing to pass Trump’s domestic spending legislation by a self-imposed Friday deadline. The Senate is voting Monday on amendments to the latest version of the bill.

The tax on wind and solar projects surprised the renewable energy industry and feels punitive, said John Hensley, senior vice president for market analysis at the American Clean Power Association. It would increase the industry’s burden by an estimated $4 billion to $7 billion, he said.

“At the end of the day, it’s a new tax in a package that is designed to reduce the tax burden of companies across the American economy,” Hensley said. The tax hits any wind and solar project that enters service after 2027 and exceeds certain thresholds for how many components are sourced from China.

This combined with the abrupt elimination of the investment tax credit and electricity production tax credit after 2027 threatens to eliminate 300 gigawatts of wind and solar projects over the next 10 years, which is equivalent to about $450 billion worth of infrastructure investment, Hensley said.

“It is going to take a huge chunk of the development pipeline and either eliminate it completely or certainly push it down the road,” Hensley said. This will increase electricity prices for consumers and potentially strain the electric grid, he said.

The construction industry has warned that nearly 2 million jobs in the building trades are at risk if the energy tax credits are terminated and other measures in budget bill are implemented. Those credits have supported a boom in clean power installations and clean technology manufacturing.

“If enacted, this stands to be the biggest job-killing bill in the history of this country,” said Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, in a statement. “Simply put, it is the equivalent of terminating more than 1,000 Keystone XL pipeline projects.”

The Senate legislation is moving toward a “worst case outcome for solar and wind,” Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco told clients in a Sunday note.

Shares of NextEra Energy, the largest renewable developer in the U.S., fell 2%. Solar stocks Array Technologies fell 8%, Enphase lost nearly 2% and Nextracker tumbled 5%.

Trump’s former advisor Elon Musk slammed the Senate legislation over the weekend.

“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country,” The Tesla CEO posted on X. “Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”

Catch up on the latest energy news from CNBC Pro:

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Nissan is in crisis mode as job cuts begin and suppliers are caught in the crosshairs

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Nissan is in crisis mode as job cuts begin and suppliers are caught in the crosshairs

Is Nissan raising the red flag? Nissan is cutting about 15% of its workforce and is now asking suppliers for more time to make payments.

Nissan starts job cuts, asks supplier to delay payments

As part of its recovery plan, Nissan announced in May that it plans to cut 20,000 jobs, or around 15% of its global workforce. It’s also closing several factories to free up cash and reduce costs.

Nissan said it will begin talks with employees at its Sunderland plant in the UK this week about voluntary retirement opportunities. The company is aiming to lay off around 250 workers.

The Sunderland plant is the largest employer in the city with around 6,000 workers and is critical piece to Nissan’s comeback. Nissan will build its next-gen electric vehicles at the facility, including the new LEAF, Juke, and Qashqai.

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According to several emails and company documents (via Reuters), Nissan is also working with its suppliers to for more time to make payments.

Nissan-delays-supplier-payments
The new Nissan LEAF (Source: Nissan)

“They could choose to be paid immediately or opt for a later payment,” Nissan said. The company explained in a statement to Reuters that it had incentivized some of its suppliers in Europe and the UK to accept more flexible payment terms, at no extra cost.

The emails show that the move would free up cash for the first quarter (April to June), similar to its request before the end of the financial year.

Nissan-delays-supplier-payments
Nissan N7 electric sedan (Source: Dongfeng Nissan)

One employee said in an email to co-workers that Nissan was asking suppliers “again” to delay payments. The emails, viewed by Reuters, were exchanged between Nissan workers in Europe and the United Kingdom.

Nissan is taking immediate action as part of its recovery plan, aiming to turn things around, the company said in a statement.

Nissan-Micra-EV
The new Nissan Micra EV (Source: Nissan)

“While we are taking these actions, we aim for sufficient liquidity to weather the costs of the turnaround actions and redeem bond maturities,” the company said.

Nissan didn’t comment on the internal discussions, but the emails did reveal it gave suppliers two options. They could either delay payments at a higher interest rate, or HSBC would make the payment, and Nissan would repay the bank with interest.

Nissan-delays-supplier-payments
Nissan’s upcoming lineup for the US, including the new LEAF EV and “Adventure Focused” SUV (Source: Nissan)

The company had 2.2 trillion yen ($15.2 billion) in cash and equivalents at the end of March, but it has around 700 billion yen ($4.9 billion) in debt that’s due later this year.

As part of Re:Nissan, the Japanese automaker’s recovery plan, Nissan looks to cut costs by 250 billion yen. By fiscal year 2026, it plans to return to profitability.

Electrek’s Take

With an aging vehicle lineup and a wave of new low-cost rivals from China, like BYD, Nissan is quickly falling behind.

Nissan is launching several new electric and hybrid vehicles over the next few years, including the next-gen LEAF, which is expected to help boost sales.

In China, the world’s largest EV market, Nissan’s first dedicated electric sedan, the N7, is off to a hot start with over 20,000 orders in 50 days.

The N7 will play a role in Nissan’s recovery efforts as it plans to export it to overseas markets. It will be one of nine new energy vehicles, including EVs and PHEVs, that Nissan plans to launch in China.

Can Nissan turn things around? Or will it continue falling behind the pack? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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