New York, May 1 (Reuters): Consuming one less soda or candy bar and walking an extra 2,000 steps every day may help prevent excessive weight gain in children, researchers report.

The findings, presented yesterday during the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting in San Francisco, are “really good news for families” in light of the widely-reported obesity epidemic among children, said Dr James . Hill of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

“With some very small changes you can begin to push back against childhood obesity,” he said. Researchers have targeted physical inactivity and diets high in fats and sugar as potential factors contributing to the epidemic of childhood obesity, yet there remains a lack of child-appropriate and effective strategies to address children’s ballooning waistlines.

Hill and his team investigated the effectiveness of the America on the Move Foundation’s, Families on the Move Programme designed to prevent excess weight gain in children. A total of 216 families, all of which had at least one overweight child, aged 7 to 14 years, were assigned to the on-the-move programme.

The 111 families in the intervention group were instructed to make two lifestyle changes: increase their physical activity by walking an extra 2,000 steps per day, and eliminate 100 calories from their daily diet by using sugar substitutes.

By the end of the six-month study, children in both groups had experienced decreases in their average body mass index ? a measure of weight that takes height into consideration.