Frequent ear infections or tonsil trouble may raise your child’s risk of being obese according to a study by researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. The reason they gave for this association was that, somehow, infections may affect food choices by damaging nerves involved in taste.

The study was presented at the 116th annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston.

Lead researcher Kathleen Daly, a professor of otolaryngology at the University of Minnesota, analyzed children who were treated with tubes for ear infections from birth to 2 years of age. The study found that “larger and heavier children were more prone to ear infections and tubes than smaller and lighter children.”

Although some of the participants at the conference were skeptical about the findings, they were confirmed by five separate studies all of them being detailed at the meeting.

In one of these studies conducted by Dr. Linda Bartoshuk from the University of Florida College of Dentistry, 6,584 adults were interviewed about their history of ear infections. The findings suggested that those with a moderate to severe history were 62 percent more likely to be obese.

“The theory is that damage to the nerve, due to ear infections, somehow alters the perception of food…so that the person is more likely to enjoy high-fat and sweet food and possibly drink more alcoholic beverages. All these foods are energy dense and increase the risk of becoming obese,” John Hayes of Brown University in Providence, R.I. who was also present at the conference said.

Another study by Howard Hoffman of the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. revealed that children who had their tonsils removed were more likely to be overweight.

The good news is that “this is not genetic. This is environmental. When you have an environmental mechanism, it suggests the possibility of being able to intervene,” Dr. Bartoshuk said.