Body Fat Percentage of Children Varies According to Their Diet Composition

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Abstract

Objective To ascertain the association between diet composition and body fat percentage in 9- and 10-year-old children. Also, to examine the influence of gender, total energy intake, fitness, physical activity, and parental body mass on the relationship between diet composition and adiposity.

Design Diet composition was assessed using the National Cancer Institute food frequency questionnaire, and adiposity was measured using the average of results determined using two skinfold equations. Fitness levels and physical activity were ascertained using the 1-mile run/walk test and a self-report 15-item scale, respectively.

Subjects A sample of 262 children (162 boys and 100 girls, mean age=9.8±0.5 years) participated.

Statistical analysis Regression analysis was used to determine the extent to which diet composition contributed to adiposity without statistical control for any potentially confounding variables. Partial correlations were calculated to assess the relationship between macronutrient intake and adiposity after potential confounders (gender, total energy intake, physical fitness, and parental body mass) were controlled statistically.

Results Energy intake was positively related to adiposity. Fat intake, calculated as a percentage of total energy, was also positively related to adiposity, before and after control for potential confounding variables. Percentage of energy derived from carbohydrate was inversely related to adiposity, before and after controlling for potential confounders.

Applications These findings indicate that the macronutrient intake of children, particularly dietary fat and carbohydrate intake, may play a role in adiposity, independent of the influence of total energy intake, gender, physical fitness, and parental body mass index.

Section snippets

Subjects

A sample of 262 children, 162 boys and 100 girls aged 9.8±0.5 years, were recruited using newspaper advertisements and school flyers. Subjects qualified by being at least 9 and less than 11 years old. Subjects were paid $10 to participate in the study. Written informed consent was obtained from each subject and a legal guardian. The study was conducted with the approval of the Brigham Young University Institutional Review Board.

Measures

Two separate written questionnaires were used. The first was

Results

Mean (±standard deviation) weights and heights were 35.9±8.4 kg and 142.5±17.7 cm, respectively, for the boys and 35.4±8.3 kg and 141.4±7.7 cm, respectively, for the girls. Mean body fat percentage was 19.2±8.7 for the boys and 23.7±6.1 for the girls. The boys consumed 2,208.3±615.7 kcal per day; 50.1±5.4% from carbohydrate, 15.9±2.3% from protein, and 34.5±5.3% from fat. The girls consumed 1,778±593.1 kcal per day; 49.3±5.7% from carbohydrate, 15.7±2.1% from protein, and 35.9±5.4% from fat. Mean

Discussion

The relationship between dietary fat and body fat has been studied many times in adults (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (20), (21), (22), (38); however, only a few studies have examined this relationship in children (25), (26), (27). In investigations of both adults and children, the percent of energy derived from fat has always been greater in obese than in lean subjects. The findings of this study were no exception. Again, the fattest subjects derived significantly more energy from fat than the

Applications

Given the strong evidence from animal research and the consistency of findings from human short-term experimental and cross-sectional investigations, including this study, the admonition to restrict dietary fat intake and promote complex carbohydrate consumption to prevent the accumulation of excess body fat seems warranted.■

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