Mediterranean dietary pattern in pregnant women and offspring risk of overweight and abdominal obesity in early childhood: the INMA birth cohort study

BACKGROUND

Animal models have suggested that maternal diet quality may reduce offspring obesity risk regardless of maternal body weight; however, evidence from human studies is scarce.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to evaluate associations between adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) during pregnancy and childhood overweight and abdominal obesity risk at 4 years of age.

METHODS

We analysed 1827 mother-child pairs from the Spanish 'Infancia y Medio Ambiente' cohort study, recruited between 2003 and 2008. Diet was assessed during pregnancy using a food frequency questionnaire and MD adherence by the relative Mediterranean diet score (rMED). Overweight (including obesity) was defined as an age-specific and sex-specific body mass index ≥85th percentile (World Health Organization referent), and abdominal obesity as a waist circumference (WC) >90th percentile. Multivariate adjusted linear and logistic regression models were used to evaluate associations between pregnancy rMED and offspring overweight and abdominal obesity.

RESULT

There was no association between rMED and body mass index z-score, whereas there was a significant association between higher adherence to MD and lower WC (β of high vs. low rMED: -0.62 cm; 95% confidence interval: -1.10, -0.14 cm, P for trend = 0.009).

CONCLUSION

Pregnancy adherence to the MD was not associated with childhood overweight risk, but it was associated with lower WC, a marker of abdominal obesity.

Mediterranean and western dietary patterns are related to markers of testicular function among healthy men

STUDY QUESTION

Are there any associations of dietary patterns with semen quality, reproductive hormone levels, and testicular volume, as markers of testicular function?

SUMMARY ANSWER

These results suggest that traditional Mediterranean diets may have a positive impact on male reproductive potential.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY

The Mediterranean diet has been related to lower risk of multiple chronic diseases, but its effects on reproduction potential are unclear.

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION

Cross-sectional sample of 215 male university students recruited from October 2010 to November 2011 in Murcia Region (Spain).

PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS

Two hundred and nine healthy men aged 18-23 years were finally included in this analysis. Diet was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire, and dietary patterns were identified by factor analysis. Linear regression was used to analyze the relation between diet patterns with semen quality parameters, reproductive hormone levels and testicular volume adjusting for potential confounders.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE

We identified two dietary patterns: a Mediterranean (characterized by high intakes of vegetables, fruits and seafood) and a Western pattern (characterized by high intakes of processed meats, French fries and snacks). The Mediterranean pattern was positively associated with total sperm count (P, trend = 0.04). The Western pattern was positively related to the percentage of morphologically normal sperm (P, trend = 0.008). We found an inverse association between adherence to the Western pattern and sperm concentration among overweight or obese men (P, trend = 0.04).

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION

As with all cross-sectional studies, causal inference is limited. However, participants were blinded to the study outcomes thus reducing the potential influenced their report of diet. Although we adjusted for a large number of known and suspected confounders, we cannot exclude the possibility of residual confounding or chance findings.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS

This study was carried out on healthy and young men, so it is difficult to predict whether and how the observed differences in semen quality translate into reproductive success for men in couples trying to conceive. These results suggest that traditional Mediterranean diets may have a positive impact on male reproductive potential.

[Compliance with current dietary recommendations and geographical variability of diet in women participating in 7 screening programs for breast cancer in Spain]

INTRODUCTION

A healthy diet is especially important during menopause, a period which increases the risk of various health problems. We analyzed the diet of periand postmenopausal Spanish women and the degree of compliance with current recommendations.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We studied 3574 women 45-68 years old who attended breast cancer screening programmes in 7 centres (A Coruña, Barcelona, Burgos, Palma de Mallorca, Pamplona, Valencia and Zaragoza). Diet information was collected using a food frequency questionnaire validated for the Spanish population. For the assessment of compliance with current guidelines we used the recommendations by the Spanish Society of Community Nutrition for food groups intake and by the Spanish Federation of Nutrition, Food and Dietetics for energy, vitamins and minerals intake.

RESULTS

The 29% of women were obese and 42% overweight. The average caloric intake was 2.053 kcal (SD 480). The general energy profile was: 43% of the energy from the carbohydrates, 36% from fats, and 20% from proteins. There was a low vitamin D intake in all centres of the study, with an overall mean intake of 2.14 mg/day. A deficit of vitamin E intake in A Coruña and Burgos was also detected. Intake of dairy products and vegetables was high in all the study centers. The consumption of fruits and vegetables was very heterogeneous, with high intakes observed in Mallorca and Valencia and low for both food groups in A Coruña. The olive oil intake was high in all centers except Burgos with 74.3% of the women studied below the recommended 3 servings per day.

CONCLUSIONS

A diet with less fat and protein and a higher consumption of vegetables, nuts and foods rich in carbohydrate might balance the energy intake and improve the quality of the diet correcting the low intakes of vitamins D and E. These recommendations are especially important in cities far from the Mediterranean coast where more breaches have been detected over the current recommendations with a lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet.

A bibliometric study of scientific literature on obesity research in PubMed (1988-2007)

This article describes a bibliometric review of the publications on obesity research in PubMed over the last 20 years. We used Medline via the PubMed online service of the US National Library of Medicine from 1988 to 2007. The search strategy was: ([obesity] in MesH). A total of 58,325 references were retrieved, 25.5% in 1988-1997, and 74.5% in 1998-2007. The growth in the number of publications showed an exponential increase. The references were published in 3613 different journals, with 20 journals contributing 25% of obesity literature. The two journals contributing most were the International Journal of Obesity (5.1%), Obesity-Obesity Research (2.9%). North America and Europe were the most productive world areas with 44.1% and 37.9% of the literature, respectively. The US was the predominant country in number of publications, followed by the United Kingdom, Japan and Italy. The ranking of production changed when the number of publications was normalized by population, gross domestic product and obesity prevalence by countries. The great increase of publications on obesity during the period 1988-2007 was particularly evident in the second decade of the period which is concordant with the worldwide obesity epidemic. USA and Europe were leaders in the production of scientific articles on obesity.