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Dietary fiber consumption is inversely associated with the anthropometric nutritional status and metabolic syndrome components in children and adolescents

Abstract:

Objective. To investigate the association between fiber consumption and anthropometric nutritional status, of metabolic syndrome (SM) and its individual components, in subjects of pediatric age. Materials and methods. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was designed with a randomly selected sample of 298 children and adolescents of both genders (149 obese) and 10 to 17 years of age. All of them underwent clinical, biochemical, anthropometric and dietetic evaluation. Physical examination included pubertal stage verification and arterial blood pressure (TA).The anthropometrical nutritional status was determined using the weight and height to calculate the BMI and the waist circumference (CC) was also measured; a food consumption frequency questionnaire was used for the dietary evaluation. The biochemical evaluation included the determination of basal glucose (GliB), insulin (InsB) and plasmatic lipids levels. For the statistical analysis the SPSS program for Windows was used, the t-Student, one ANOVA factor, Pearson correlation and Pearson’s Chi2 test were applied, considering the values of p<0.05 to be significant. Results. Differences were found (p<0.05) between eutrophic and obese for all variables analyzed with the exception of the GliB; when comparing obese with and without SM, differences were observed (p<0.05) for all parameters except for the age, GliB and total cholesterol. The 26.2% of obese subjects presented SM. The consumption of fiber of all groups was below the WHO’s recommendations and the main source were cereals. Also was evident difference in the consumption of fiber between obese and eutrophic (p<0,034), but not between obese individuals with and without SM. An inverse correlation between total fiber consumption and BMI, CC, TA and GliB (p<0.05) was found and between the fiber from fruits with BMI, CC, TA, GliB, InsB and triacilgliceridos (p<0.05), but positive between the fiber from vegetables and BMI, CC and InsB (p<0.05). Conclusions. A lower fiber consumption is associated with obesity and SM components Daily intake of fruits seems to exhibit a positive impact on the metabolic health of children and adolescents.