Energy density of the diet and change in body fatness from childhood to adolescence; is there a relation?

McCaffrey, Tracy A.; Rennie, Kirsten L.; Kerr, Maeve; Wallace, Julie; Hannon-Fletcher, Mary P.A; Coward, W. A.; Jebb, Susan A.; Livingstone, Barbara

doi:10.1093/ajcn/87.5.1230

Cited by 64 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…These foods may reflect home cooking as well as fast food consumption and hence the association with diet quality may not be as straightforward. The mean energy density values in our study are slightly lower than those published by Johnson et al (2008a) and McCaffrey et al (2008), but their dietary assessment methods differed from ours and their subjects were younger. Mendoza et al (2006) reported much lower values but did not exclude all beverages in their calculations.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

“…A cross-sectional association between energy density and selected predictors of obesity (Mendoza et al, 2006), and a longitudinal association with overweight (McCaffrey et al, 2008;Johnson et al, 2008a), have also been reported in children. In adults, low-energy-density diets have been associated with higher diet quality (based on micronutrient, macronutrient and food intakes) in two large US cohorts: the NHANES III (Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) and the CSFII (Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals) 1994-1996 surveys (Kant and Graubard, 2005b;Ledikwe et al, 2006b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

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Dietary energy density as a marker of dietary quality in Swedish children and adolescents: the European Youth Heart Study

et al. 2010

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Objective: To investigate if dietary energy density is associated with measures of dietary quality (food group, micronutrient and macronutrient intakes) in children and adolescents. Subjects/Methods: In all, 551 children (mean age 9.6 years, 52% girls) and 569 adolescents (15.5 years, 55% girls), sampled from schools in Sweden, completed a single 24-h dietary recall. Dietary energy density (kJ/g) was calculated as the energy from all food consumed divided by the weight of all food consumed. Beverages were excluded from the calculation. Food and micronutrient intakes were adjusted for energy intake. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test for differences in food group and nutrient intakes across age-and gender-specific tertiles of energy density. Discriminant analysis was used to confirm the groupings formed by tertiles. Results: Subjects with low-energy-density diets were significantly more likely to consume fruits, vegetables, pasta, rice, potatoes and cereals and less likely to consume sweetened drinks, sweets and chocolate. After energy adjustment, their intakes of many foods recommended in the Swedish food-based dietary guidelines were higher and intakes of nutrient-poor foods were lower. The macronutrient energy profile (% energy) of low-energy-density diets was closest to the recommended level. Low-energydensity diets contained greater amounts of most micronutrients. Discriminant analysis confirmed the existence of heterogeneous dietary patterns and the likelihood of correct classification by energy density in 65% of cases. Conclusions: Lower dietary energy density is associated with better dietary quality in children and adolescents. Energy density has advantages over other whole diet analysis methods and may be suitable as a simple proxy of diet quality.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Dietary energy density as a marker of dietary quality in Swedish children and adolescents: the European Youth Heart Study

et al. 2010

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“…107 Chronic consumption of diets high in energy density is positively associated with childhood obesity and predictive of later adiposity in both industrialized and developing countries. [110][111][112][113][114][115][116] The combined effects of portion size and energy density can promote excessive energy intake by children, resulting in a significant accumulation of excess calories over multiple meals. 117,118 The broader obesogenic environment becomes more influential during the transition to the adult diet, but parents can still retain relatively high levels of control over their children's environments and thus have the potential to moderate obesogenic influences during this period of rapid transitions and learning.…”

Section: Transition To a Modified Adult Dietmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental influence on children's early eating environments and obesity risk: implications for prevention

2010

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Most childhood obesity prevention efforts have focused on school-age children and adolescents and have had limited success. We argue that the first years of life, including the prenatal period, the postnatal suckling period and the transition to the modified adult diet, may provide opportunities for preventive interventions. These early periods are characterized by high plasticity and rapid transitions, and parents have a high degree of control over children's environments and experiences. Observational and experimental evidence reveal persistent effects of early environments on eating behavior and obesity risk, suggesting that interventions should be tested during these early periods. The central task parents have in early development points to their potential as key targets and agents of change in early preventive interventions. In this paper, we review evidence of early environmental effects on children's eating and obesity risk, highlighting ways that parental feeding practices and parents' own behaviors impact these outcomes and calling for further experimental research to elucidate whether these factors are indeed promising targets for childhood obesity preventive interventions.

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“…The evidence for the association in young people was based on four methodologically rigorous longitudinal studies, whose key strengths were: (1) use of objective measures of adiposity (including dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry or doubly-labelled water) rather than reliance on proxy measures such as BMI; (2) mis-reporting of dietary EI was appropriately adjusted for; (3) ED was calculated by recommended methods that excluded all or most beverages, to avoid attenuation of results (62)(63)(64)(65) . The latter issue is of critical importance in evaluating associations between ED and adiposity (65) . These authors convincingly demonstrated that when the calculation of ED included liquids (i.e.…”

Section: Observational Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Influencing and modifying children's energy intake: the role of portion size and energy density

et al. 2014

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Childhood obesity is of concern worldwide. The portion size (PS) and energy density (ED) of food are two major determinants of children's energy intake (EI). Trends towards increasing PS are most apparent and best documented in the USA, where PS of numerous food products have increased in the marketplace over the past three decades, particularly high-energy dense foods. Analyses of population-level dietary surveys have confirmed this trend in children for both in-and out-of-home eating, and a plethora of observational evidence positively associates PS, ED and adiposity in children. A limited number of intervention studies provide clear evidence that children, even as young as 2 years, respond acutely to increasing PS, with some studies also demonstrating the additive effects of increased ED in promoting excessive EI. However, most of the evidence is based on children aged 3-6 years and there is a paucity of data in older children and adolescents. It is unclear whether decreasing PS can have the opposite effect on children's EI but recent acute studies have demonstrated that the incorporation of lower energy dense foods, such as fruit and vegetables, into children's meals down-regulates EI. Although a direct causal link between PS and obesity remains to be established, the regular consumption of larger PS of energy dense foods do favour obesity-promoting eating behaviours in children. Further research is required to establish the most feasible and effective interventions and policies to counteract the deleterious impact of PS and ED on children's EI.

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Energy density of the diet and change in body fatness from childhood to adolescence; is there a relation?

Abstract: The methods used to calculate ED and to assess obesity risk lead to different conclusions about the relation between the ED of the diet in childhood and gain in fat into adolescence.

Cited by 64 publications

References 44 publications

Dietary energy density as a marker of dietary quality in Swedish children and adolescents: the European Youth Heart Study

Dietary energy density as a marker of dietary quality in Swedish children and adolescents: the European Youth Heart Study

Parental influence on children's early eating environments and obesity risk: implications for prevention

Influencing and modifying children's energy intake: the role of portion size and energy density

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