Dietary amino acids and anthropometric indices: Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study

Abstract

Objective: Recent studies investigated the role of amino acids (AAs) in weight management. We aimed to determine the association between AAs and three-year change of anthropometric indices and incident obesity. Materials and methods: Height, weight, hip, and waist circumference (WC) were collected at baseline and follow up. Three-year changes in anthropometric indices and obesity incident according to body mass index (BMI) (overweight & obesity) and WC cutoffs (obesity-WC) were ascertained. Dietary intakes of AAs were collected at baseline, using a food frequency questionnaire. Data analyses were conducted on 4976 adult participants and two subsamples, including 1,570 and 2,918 subjects, for assessing the AAs relationship with 3-year changes on anthropometric indices and obesity incident. Results: Lysine and aspartic acid were positively associated with higher weight change, whereas acidic AAs, cysteine, and glutamic acid showed a negative correlation with weight change. Furthermore, a weak positive correlation was shown for alkaline AAs, lysine, and valine with WC; however, acidic AAs, tryptophan, cysteine, and glutamic acid were negatively associated with WC. Aromatic and acidic AAs also demonstrated a weak negative relation with changes in BAI. Phenylalanine and Aromatic AAs showed a negative association with overweight &obesity incidence adjusting for potential confounders. Each quartile increases the dietary lysine, arginine, alanine, methionine, aspartic acid, and alkaline AAs related to a greater risk of obesity-WC, while tryptophan, glutamic acid, proline, and acidic AAs associated with lower obesity-WC risk. Conclusion: Our results suggested that certain dietary AAs may potentially change anthropometric indices and risk of obesity incident.

The relationship between amino acid intake patterns and both general and central obesity

“…Consistent with our ndings, a cross-sectional study done by Teymoori et al reported a protective impact of tryptophan and phenylalanine as two AAAs on WC and excess body weight (17). Wang et al found that eating tryptophan-containing foods had a signi cant association with the reduction in the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes (34).…”

“…A signi cant inverse relationship was found between the intake of the aromatic pattern and the odds of developing central obesity. Analyses of data from a study involving 5000 adults revealed that each quartile increase in dietary intake of tryptophan, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, and proline was associated with a depressed risk of abdominal obesity (17). According to a study, the physiological functions of glutamic acid were reported as a potential therapeutic target for appetite regulation, body weight control, or obesity, as well as a biomarker for visceral obesity (30).…”

“…With regard to the AA dietary pattern, existing evidence assessed the association between speci c group of AAs including branched-chain AAS (BCAA: leucine, isoleucine, and valine), sulfur-containing AAs (SCAA: methionine and cystine), or every AA in isolation with obesity and central adiposity (15)(16)(17).…”