Maternal diet, breastfeeding and adolescent body composition: a 16-year prospective study

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Overweight and obesity are becoming increasingly prevalent problems worldwide. A number of factors in early life have been found to be associated with body composition of neonates or young children but there is limited follow-up data for adolescents. This study aims to describe associations between early nutrition and body composition in adolescents. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Birth cohort study of 415 pregnant women and their offspring (mean age 16 years). Body composition including fat mass (FM) and lean body mass (LBM) of adolescents at 16 years of age was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Information on maternal food and nutrients intake during the third trimester of pregnancy and breastfeeding was collected by questionnaires soon after birth. RESULTS: A total of 264 mother-adolescents pairs were studied. Maternal antenatal meat intake was positively associated with FM of adolescents (an increase of 0.9%/portion, Po0.01). There were also positive associations between maternal energy intake (per 1000 kJ/day), fat (per 10 g/d) and protein (per 10 g/day) intake and offspring's FM (an increase of 1.3%), but these became borderline after adjustment for confounders. Breastfeeding 425 days was negatively associated with FM in adolescents (a decrease of 14%, P ¼ 0.01). These associations were independent of the significant association between maternal energy and macronutrient intakes during pregnancy and adolescent intakes at 16 years of age. No significant association was found between maternal dietary intake and lean mass in adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: Breastfeeding may have a biological effect that is beneficial for the prevention of obesity. Conversely, higher maternal meat intake during pregnancy may increase FM in adolescents.

Maternal dietary patterns during pregnancy and body composition of the child at age 6 y: the Generation R Study

“…In our study, all significant associations in the crude models were no longer significant after adjustment for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Other studies that did find associations between maternal diet during pregnancy and child body composition did not always adjust for maternal covariates, such as maternal folic acid use (9,13) or prepregnancy BMI (10,13), which were important confounders in our analyses. In addition, the study that reported the association between a high meat intake and a high fat mass in 16-yold adolescents (13) may have the benefits of the longer follow-up period, but this also increases the risk of residual confounding.…”

“…However, other studies did not replicate these findings (11,12). Only one study investigated food group intake during pregnancy, which showed that a higher maternal meat intake was associated with a higher fat mass in adolescents, but no associations with vegetables, fish, fruit, and milk were found (13). All of these studies investigated single nutrients or foods, but people do not eat isolated nutrients or foods but whole diets instead.…”

Social and demographic determinants for breastfeeding in a rural, suburban and city area of South East China

“…More specifically, breast milk contains complex immune factors as well as nutrients that are essential for immune system development (Iyengar & Walker, 2012). Breastfeeding has been linked to increased protection against the development of childhood type 1 diabetes mellitus (Rosenbauer, Herzig, & Giani, 2008), asthma (Scholtens et al, 2009), and obesity (Yin, Quinn, Dwyer, Posonby, & Jones, 2012). Emphasizing these significant benefits of breastfeeding compared to BMS may help to promote breastfeeding among educated and urban women and increase the prevalence of breastfeeding in China.…”

Obesity and pregnancy: mechanisms of short term and long term adverse consequences for mother and child

“…[118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133] Overall, although poor quality diets seem to have detrimental effects in the offspring, they are unlikely to be mediators of changes associated with maternal obesity but probably represent an independent risk factor. Studies have also evaluated the association between type of dietary fat and child health outcomes.…”