Body fat percentile curves for Korean children and adolescents: a data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2010.

A valid assessment of obesity in children and adolescents is important due to significant change in body composition during growth. This study aimed to develop percentile curves of body fat and fat free mass using the Lambda, Mu, and Sigma method, and to examine the relationship among body mass index (BMI), fat mass and fat free mass in Korean children and adolescents, using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2009-2010. The study subjects were 834 for boys and 745 for girls aged between 10 and 18 yr. Fat mass and fat free mass were measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. The patterns of development in body fat percentage, fat mass and fat free mass differed for boys and girls, showing a decreased fat mass with an increased fat free mass in boys but gradual increases with age in girls. The considerable proportion of boys and girls with relatively normal fat mass appeared to be misclassified to be at risk of overweight based on the BMI criteria. Therefore, the information on the percentiles of body fat and fat free mass with their patterns would be helpful to complement assessment of overweight and obesity based on BMI for Korean children and adolescents.

The effect of a healthy school tuck shop program on the access of students to healthy foods.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a healthy school tuck shop program, developed as a way of creating a healthy and nutritional school environment, on students' access to healthy foods. Five middle schools and four high schools (775 students) participated in the healthy school tuck shop program, and nine schools (1,282 students) were selected as the control group. The intervention program included restriction of unhealthy foods sold in tuck shops, provision of various fruits, and indirect nutritional education with promotion of healthy food products. The program evaluation involved the examination of students' purchase and intake patterns of healthy foods, satisfaction with the available foodstuffs, and utilization of and satisfaction with nutritional educational resources. Our results indicated that among of the students who utilized the tuck shop, about 40% purchased fruit products, showing that availability of healthy foods in the tuck shop increased the accessibility of healthy foods for students. Overall food purchase and intake patterns did not significantly change during the intervention period. However, students from the intervention schools reported higher satisfaction with the healthy food products sold in the tuck shop than did those from the control schools (all P < 0.001), and they were highly satisfied with the educational resources provided to them. In conclusion, the healthy school tuck shop program had a positive effect on the accessibility of healthy food. The findings suggest that a healthy school tuck shop may be an effective environmental strategy for promoting students' access to healthy foods.

The association of carbohydrate intake, glycemic load, glycemic index, and selected rice foods with breast cancer risk: a case-control study in South Korea.

Despite carbohydrate hypothesis related to breast cancer development, the inter-relationships of carbohydrate measures with risk of breast cancer are unclear. We evaluated the association between the risk of breast cancer and total carbohydrate intake, glycemic load, and glycemic index, and types of rice in a hospital-based case-control study. Cases were 362 women aged 30-65 years old who were histologically confirmed to have breast cancer. Controls visiting the same hospital were matched to cases according to their age (+/-2 years) and menopausal status. Food intake was estimated by a quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) with 121 items. Conditional and unconditional logistic regression analysis was used to obtain the odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals. There were no associations between risk of breast cancer and carbohydrate intake and glycemic load. A positive association with white rice (OR=1.19 per 100g/d increment, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.01-1.40), no association with mixed white rice (OR=0.95 per 100g/d increment, 95% CI=0.80-1.13), and an inverse association with mixed brown rice (OR=0.76 per 100g/d increment of mixed brown rice, 95% CI=0.61-0.95) was found. Additional analysis showed a positive association for white rice and an inverse association f mixed brown rice with breast cancer risk among overweight, postmenopausal women. These results do not support an association between breast cancer and diets high in carbohydrate, glycemic index, or glycemic load. However, a higher consumption of mixed brown rice may be associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer, especially in overweight, postmenopausal women.

Cross-sectional relationship between dietary carbohydrate, glycaemic index, glycaemic load and risk of the metabolic syndrome in a Korean population.

Little is known about the effect of dietary carbohydrate, glycaemic index (GI) and glycaemic load (GL) on the risk of the metabolic syndrome, especially in populations with white rice as the staple food. The study examined the cross-sectional relationship between carbohydrate, GI, GL and risk of the metabolic syndrome. There were a total of 910 middle-aged Korean adults. Dietary carbohydrate, GI and GL were determined by an interview-administered FFQ. The metabolic syndrome was defined using the modified criteria published in the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III. The risk of developing the metabolic syndrome was positively related to dietary carbohydrate (P for trend = 0.03), GI (P for trend = 0.03) and GL intakes (P for trend = 0.02) in women after adjusting for potential confounding variables. Among the components of developing the metabolic syndrome, the risk of high TAG and low HDL-cholesterol were positively related to high GI and GL intakes in women. The risk of developing the metabolic syndrome was considerably higher in the highest quintiles of carbohydrate (OR 6.44; 95 % CI 2.16, 19.2), GI (OR 10.4; 95 % CI 3.24, 33.3) and GL intakes (OR 6.68; 95 % CI 2.30, 19.4) than in the lowest quintiles among women with a BMI >/= 25 kg/m2. However, there was no difference in risk across quintiles of carbohydrate, GI and GL among women with a BMI < 25 kg/m2. In conclusion, both the quantity and quality of carbohydrate intake has a positive relationship with the risk of the metabolic syndrome in women but this relationship was dependent on the BMI level.