The Relationship between Dietary Patterns and High Blood Glucose among Adults Based on Structural Equation Modelling

How Does Energy Intake Change in China? A Life Cycle Perspective

China's population is showing the characteristics of "fewer children" and "aging", which will have a long-term and far-reaching impact on the food and nutritional needs of China and the world. In this paper, adult equivalent scale (AES) variables representing the household population structure were introduced into the energy intake model to quantify the impact of population structure changes on energy intake and reveal the characteristics of energy intake changes in the life cycle of Chinese residents. It is found that the change in the population structure has a significant impact on the energy intake of urban households in China, and the elasticity is 0.446. The energy intake of Chinese elderly over the age of 60 shows a trend of first increasing and then decreasing, especially after the age of 65, which indicates that the aging will promote a decline in food consumption in China. The energy intake of 1-10-year-old children, 22-30 year old, and 40-45 year old women all showed a change of first a decrease and then an increase, which may be related to parents' care for young children and women with children's management of body size. The average household size expressed by the adult equivalent scales of energy consumption is 2.341, which is smaller than the 3.052 calculated by the population number. The conclusion indicates that the prediction of the food and nutritional demand should be adjusted according to the changes and differences in accordance with the intensification of "fewer children" and "aging", as well as the life cycle changes in residents' energy intake, which is conducive to the formulation of food and nutrition security policies.

Diet Quality, Cardiometabolic Risk and Diabetes

The alarming rise in obesity worldwide is a dramatic public health concern [...].

Dietary Patterns and Association with Anemia in Children Aged 9-16 Years in Guangzhou, China: A Cross-Sectional Study

Anemia affects 1.8 billion people worldwide, and diet is one of the key modifiable factors for treating anemia in children. The dietary pattern has changed rapidly in recent decades, but its effect on childhood anemia has not been reported. This study aimed to identify dietary patterns among children in rural areas of Guangzhou, China, and explore their association with anemia. A total of 1476 children aged 9-16 years old were included in this study. Demographics, lifestyle, and anthropometric and dietary information were collected. Factor analysis was used to identify dietary patterns, and anemia was diagnosed based on hemoglobin levels. Robust Poisson regression and subgroup analysis were used to analyze the association between dietary patterns and anemia. The prevalence of anemia in children was 10.4%, with 6.1% in boys and 15.4% in girls. Four dietary patterns were identified, including a fast food pattern, a vegetarian pattern, a meat and egg pattern, and a rice and wheat pattern. A high score in the fast food pattern was positively associated with risk of anemia in children entering puberty (PR = 1.767, 95% CI: 1.026~3.043, p = 0.039), especially in girls after menarche, with marginal significance (PR = 1.740, 95% CI: 0.977~3.097, p = 0.059). A high score in the meat and egg pattern was negatively associated with risk of anemia in children entering puberty (PR = 0.498, 95% CI: 0.286~0.866, p = 0.013), especially in boys after spermatorrhea (PR = 0.237, 95% CI: 0.031~0.590, p = 0.007). The fast food pattern was a risk factor for anemia in children, and the meat and egg pattern was a protective factor for anemia in children entering puberty. The findings of this study could be used to guide the strategies of evidence-based preventive nutrition interventions to curb anemia in children.

Aging Population, Balanced Diet and China's Grain Demand

The need to make more accurate grain demand (GD) forecasting has become a major topic in the current international grain security discussion. Our research aims to improve short-term GD prediction by establishing a multi-factor model that integrates the key factors: shifts in dietary structures, population size and age structure, urbanization, food waste, and the impact of COVID-19. These factors were not considered simultaneously in previous research. To illustrate the model, we projected China's annual GDP from 2022 to 2025. We calibrated key parameters such as conversion coefficients from animal foods to feed grain, standard person consumption ratios, and population size using the latest surveys and statistical data that were either out of date or missing in previous research. Results indicate that if the change in diets continued at the rate as observed during 2013-2019 (scenario 1), China's GD is projected to be 629.35 million tons in 2022 and 658.16 million tons in 2025. However, if diets shift to align with the recommendations in the Dietary Guideline for Chinese Residents 2022 (scenario 2), GD would be lower by 5.9-11.1% annually compared to scenario 1. A reduction in feed grain accounts for 68% of this change. Furthermore, for every 1 percentage point increase in the population adopting a balanced diet, GD would fall by 0.44-0.73 million tons annually during that period. Overlooking changes in the population age structure could lead to an overprediction of annual GDP by 3.8% from 2022 to 2025. With an aging population, China's GD would fall slightly, and adopting a balanced diet would not lead to an increase in GD but would have positive impacts on human health and the environment. Our sensitivity analysis indicated that reducing food waste, particularly cereal, livestock, and poultry waste, would have significant effects on reducing GD, offsetting the higher demand due to rising urbanization and higher incomes. These results underscore the significance of simultaneous consideration of multiple factors, particularly the dietary structure and demographic composition, resulting in a more accurate prediction of GD. Our findings should be useful for policymakers concerning grain security, health, and environmental protection.