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. 2024 Sep 27:S0002-9165(24)00798-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.09.023. Online ahead of print.

Are the EAT-Lancet dietary recommendations associated with cardiometabolic health? - insights from the Generation XXI cohort from childhood into early adolescence

Beatriz Teixeira  1 , Cláudia Afonso  2 , Milton Severo  3 , Andreia Oliveira  4
Affiliations

Are the EAT-Lancet dietary recommendations associated with cardiometabolic health? - insights from the Generation XXI cohort from childhood into early adolescence

Beatriz Teixeira et al. Am J Clin Nutr. .

Abstract

Background: The prospective effect of healthy and planetary diets on cardiometabolic health at young ages remains unclear.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the prospective associations between adherence to the EAT-Lancet dietary recommendations at age 7 and the prevalence of obesity and Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) at 7, 10, and 13 years old (y).

Methods: Participants are children from the Generation XXI birth cohort, who completed 3-day food diaries at age 7, with complete data in variables of interest (n 3564). Adherence to the EAT-Lancet dietary recommendations was evaluated using the World Index for Sustainability and Health (WISH); a higher score indicating a healthier and environmentally sustainable diet. At 7, 10 and 13y, anthropometrics (weight, height and waist circumference-WC), blood pressure (BP) and serum-fasting triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol and glucose were measured. Obesity and MetS prevalence were determined by the World Health Organization and the International Diabetes Federation criteria, respectively. Adjusted custom binomial log-linear models were used to calculate prevalence ratios (PR) and the respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) (covariates: mother's age, education, pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational diabetes, child's sex, age, tanner stage, sports practice and total grams of the remaining food).

Results: From 7 to 13y, obesity decreased from 14.1% to 9.3% and MetS increased from 1.0% to 5.1%. Higher WISH scores at 7y were associated with a lower prevalence of obesity, measured by both BMI (≥97th percentile: PR=0.912, 95%CI: 0.839,0.991; PR=0.882, 95%CI: 0.79,0.938, respectively at 10 and 13y) and WC (≥90th percentile: PR=0.899, 95%CI: 0.830,0.974; PR=0.858, 95%CI:0.782,0.942, respectively at 10 and 13y). For each 10-point increase in the WISH, a reduction of 16% in MetS prevalence at 13y was observed (PR=0.837, 95%CI: 0.732,0.957). No significant effects were found at younger ages.

Conclusions: The adherence to the EAT-Lancet diet from an early age may help reduce cardiometabolic risk in early adolescence.

Keywords: Adolescents; Cardiometabolic health; Children; Cohort studies; Feeding behavior; Metabolic Syndrome; Obesity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper

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