Dear Editor:
I appreciate Dr. Anchondo's thoughtful comparisons
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between the Traffic Light Diet,
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the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Expert Recommendations,
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Bright Futures,
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and Ellyn Satter's
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“…philosophy of internal regulation related to eating.” The nutrition intervention used in the study was not described in detail in the article “Pediatric overweight prevention through a parent training program for 2–4 year old Latino children,”
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and this may account for Dr. Anchondo's comments. To clarify, there were no caloric restrictions implemented nor was there an intent for children to lose weight in this study. The focus of the study intervention was to create a home environment that promoted healthy parenting routines and provided access and availability to healthy food and beverage options to support healthy growth among the preschool children. Evidence demonstrates that increasing the availability and accessibility of healthy foods and beverages, such as healthy and low-calorie drinks and fruits and vegetables, increases their consumption.7,8 We used a modification of the Traffic Light Diet for our families to provide clear guidelines for them on what foods and drinks would be healthier to have in the home environment. We also incorporated into the intervention the list of evidence-based steps and strategies outlined in the AAP childhood obesity prevention Expert Committee recommendations and the Bright Futures guidelines.3,4
The original study was catalyzed by an observation in our primary care clinic that serves predominantly Latino families; we observed accelerated weight gain compared to height gains with subsequent rising BMI percentiles among our preschool low-income Latino population, similar to national trends.
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In our study, families were taught to create an environment where the child finds the healthy choice the easy choice
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and to allow the child to self-regulate their food and beverage consumption within this context. Our study demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach in reducing the accelerated weight gain in the Latino preschool population studied in “Pediatric overweight prevention through a parent training program for 2–4 year old Latino children.”
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