Dr. Jennifer Orlet Fisher

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  www.isbnpa.org/about-isbnpa/our-committees/ - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/3/2009    Last Visited: 11/3/2009  

  Jennifer Orlet Fisher, PhD
  
  Chair, Newsletter Sub-Committee Member, Communications Committee
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  Jennifer Orlet Fisher, PhD
  
  Chair, Newsletter Sub-Committee Member, Communications Committee

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  www.kidsnutrition.org/consumer/nyc/vol3_02/vol3-02.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/19/2009    Last Visited: 2/19/2009  

  In the study, CNRC behavioral scientist Dr. Jennifer Fisher discovered that the tendency of young girls to over-indulge in snack foods when not hungry increased when their parents were in the habit of tightly controlling what their daughters ate.
  
  "In this study, the tendency to eat in the absence of hunger appeared to be in part a result of parental restrictions," said Fisher, also an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. "Kids, just like adults, don't like to be told what they can't do."
  
  For the study, Fisher monitored the eating habits of nearly 200 five-year-old girls over a two-year period to see what and how much of several tempting snack foods they would consume right after eating a full meal and were no longer hungry.
  
  The study also measured parental restriction by determining the extent to which parents typically gave their daughters access to ice cream, chocolate candy, potato chips and the other "kid-friendly" snack foods used in the study. Examples of restrictive parental behavior included getting upset if their child obtained these types of foods without asking, monitoring the child's consumption of these foods, generally limiting the amount consumed, denying second helpings, keeping the food out of reach, and limiting how often the food is in the home. Children's perception of parental restriction was also assessed.
  
  Fisher found that, despite their reported lack of hunger, few girls could resist the temptation to nibble on at least some of the 10 snack foods that were placed in the observation room with them following lunch.
  
  "Although nearly all girls snacked, we found that over the course of the study, some girls seemed to just nibble, while others consistently consumed a lot of food when they weren't hungry," she said.
  
  Fisher also discovered that girls whose parents tended to tightly control what their daughters ate at age 5 ate significantly more snack-calories throughout the study than those with less controlling parents. The study also revealed that those who tended to consume the most snacks when not hungry were more than four times as likely to be overweight at both 5 and 7 years of age. Consumption of snacks during the study sessions ranged from 0 to nearly 450 calories.
  
  "These links help us understand how children learn to feel about food," Fisher said.
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  Fisher believes that parental restriction may focus children's attention away from their own hunger and fullness cues. This is important because adults who consciously self-restrict what and how much they eat tend to have lower physical self-appraisal and self-esteem.
  
  According to Fisher, the study suggests that a less restrictive approach that includes palatable, energy-dense foods as part of a well-varied diet could help young girls stay in touch with their own fullness cues and maintain a healthy view of their own eating. However, she also stresses that this does not mean that parents should let kids eat whatever and whenever they wish.
  
  "Structure plays an important role in the development of children's eating behavior," she said. "Parents should retain responsibility for deciding what, where and when children are offered food, but children should be allowed to decide whether and how much they will eat."
  
  Source: Jennifer Orlet Fisher and Leann L Birch Eating in the absence of hunger and overweight in girls from 5 to 7 y of age.
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  Related professional journal articles by Dr. Fisher:
  
  Leann L Birch and Jennifer O Fisher.

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  www.kidsnutrition.org/consumer/archives/walkthewalk.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/4/2006    Last Visited: 11/11/2007  

  In a new study, Dr. Jennifer Fisher, a CNRC behavioral nutrition scientist, found that young girls were more likely to be pressured to eat fruits and vegetables -- and less likely to actually eat them -- when their parents ate few of these healthy foods themselves.
  
  The study findings appear in the January 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
  
  "Our findings suggest that if parents want their children to eat more fruits and vegetables, they can't just 'talk the talk,'" Fisher said.
  
  Fisher examined the feeding practices and dietary intake of nearly 200 5-year-old girls and their parents as part of a long-term study she conducted with Dr. Leann Birch at Penn State University.She found parents who reported consuming the fewest fruits and vegetables were also those who employed the most pressure in their child-feeding practices.Yet, despite their efforts, their daughters consumed 1.6 fewer servings of fruits and vegetables per day than the offspring of fruit and vegetable-munching parents.Fisher also found that the diet of these girls was less nutritious diets overall, containing less vitamin A and folate and more fat.
  
  "These findings underscore our previous studies suggesting that parents who try to tightly control what their children eat can inadvertently make 'healthy' foods like vegetables even less desirable to their children," she said.
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  Source: Fisher, J., et al. "Parental influences on young girls' fruit and vegetable, micronutrient, and fat intakes.J Am Diet Assoc 2002; 102:58-64.

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  kidsnutrition.org/annual_report/2003/faculty.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/1/2003    Last Visited: 5/7/2007  

  Jennifer O. Fisher, Ph.D

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  www.kidsnutrition.org/consumer/archives/guilt.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/4/2006    Last Visited: 2/19/2009  

  "When exposed to popular snacks like chocolate and ice cream, children whose parents tended to tightly control what they ate were more likely to overeat in the absence of hunger, and express more negative feelings about their eating, than those whose parents had a more relaxed approach to child feeding," said Dr. Jennifer Fisher , a Baylor assistant professor of pediatrics and behavioral nutrition researcher with the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center.
  
  Fisher studied nearly 200, 5-year old European-American girls and their parents to determine whether restrictive child feeding practices affect the way children learn to evaluate their own eating behavior. Her research, part of an on-going project at Penn State University, was published in the November 2000 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
  
  "Because adults who consciously self-restrict their eating tend to have lower physical self-appraisal and self-esteem, it's important to understanding how children learn to feel about food," Fisher said. "Children of restrictive parents may come to perceive restricted foods as highly desirable, but also associate eating them with parental disapproval. This could increase their tendency to practice self-restriction as adults."
  
  To measure parental restriction, Fisher determined the extent to which each child was typically given access to the 10 snack foods used in the study.
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  "We found that the girls' negative self-evaluations of eating were related to their perception of parental restriction of a food, not how much they actually ate," Fisher said. "And, the more restricted a child felt, the more she tended to eat."
  
  These finding suggest that restricting a child's access to high-fat, high-sugar foods does little to promote healthy eating habits, despite the attractiveness of this straightforward approach.
  
  "A less restrictive approach, which includes palatable, energy-dense foods as part of a well-varied diet, could be better for helping young girls stay in touch with their own fullness cues and maintain a healthy view of their own eating," Fisher said.
  
  "Structure plays an important role in the development of children's eating behavior. But, while parents should retain responsibility for deciding what types of foods are appropriate to bring home, children should be active participants in their own eating decisions," she said.

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  www.kidsnutrition.org/consumer/nyc/vol2-02a.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/4/2006    Last Visited: 2/22/2008  

  The "Babies First" study, being conducted by CNRC behavioral nutritionist Dr. Jennifer Fisher, is currently recruiting 44 Houston-area new mothers and their 3- to 12-month-old breast-fed or formula-fed babies.The study requires a single, short visit to the CNRC and provides a $50 gift certificate to compensate mothers for their time and cooperation.
  
  "Babies begin life consuming a single food, either breast milk or infant formula.But, by one year of age, their diets tend to be very similar to those of adults," said Fisher, who is also an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor."With this study, we hope to begin to discover the behavioral factors that influence this amazing progression."
  
  Fisher became interested in working with mothers and babies at the CNRC following years of studying differences in food preferences and eating behaviors among 4- and 5-year-old preschoolers at Penn State University.
  
  "It is generally assumed that eating behaviors like food preferences are established in early childhood," she said."Yet, I believe it's unlikely that younger children or even infants all have similar eating behaviors until they become preschoolers - when like magic - noticeable differences suddenly appear."
  
  In her new CNRC study, Fisher will monitor how babies' food preferences and food intake, as well as other eating behaviors, change during the first year of life, and how these factors relate to growth.
  
  "I believe that this study could help fill an important gap in our understanding of how children's food preferences and behaviors like "picky eating" versus "healthy eating" develop," she said.
  
  Houston-area new mothers interested in participating in Dr. Fisher's BABIES FIRST are encouraged to call the study's recruitment hotline: (713) 798-6740.

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  kidsnutrition.org/annual_report/2003/research.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/1/2003    Last Visited: 5/7/2007  

  Jennifer Orlet Fisher, Ph.D. Dr. Fisher's research investigates the development of food preferences and the controls of food intake during infancy and early childhood.The broad goal of her research program is to understand how early eating environments modify young children's eating behavior and health outcomes.

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  d143032.i58.quadrahosting.com.au/html/news_up_v13.asp - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 6/1/2007    Last Visited: 2/18/2008  

  Leahy and her colleagues Rolls, Leann Birch, Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University, and Jennifer Fisher, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, presented their findings on May 1, 2007 at the Experimental Biology Conference in Washington, D.C.

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  www.ift.org/cgi-bin/news/archives.cgi?view=3-2005 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/1/2005    Last Visited: 7/8/2006  

  The study was the first to look at how mothers influence their daughters' beverage-drinking habits and bone health during childhood, according to Jennifer O. Fisher, a researcher at the Children's Nutrition Research Center (CNRC) in Houston.The study included 180 five-year-old girls from central Pennsylvania.The girls were tracked by the research team for five years, according to Fisher, a CNRC behavioral scientist and professor of pediatrics. In the study, the researchers tested whether their mothers' sweetened beverage- or milk-drinking choices affected their daughters' long-term beverage choices, and whether the girls' beverage drinking habits were linked to their bone health.Fisher found that milk-drinking mothers were much more likely to report always--or almost always--serving milk to their daughters at meals and snack times.

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  www.mikespe.com/physedexpress/index.php/search/results/ - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/2/2005    Last Visited: 5/24/2007  

  Jennifer O. Fisher, a CNRC behavioral scientist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, led the study.Fisher and her research team followed more than 180 central-Pennsylvania, 5-year-old girls for 5 years.

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