Calcium intake and its relationship with risk of overweight and obesity in adolescents.

Adolescents' eating habits are determined by social, psychological, economic, political, and educational influences. They tend to prefer foods with inadequate nutritional value and high fat and carbohydrate content which leads to excessive weight gain and for many, calcium intake is restricted. According to some authors, low calcium intake is linked to increased adiposity. The objective was to evaluate adolescent calcium intake and investigate a possible relationship between calcium intake and nutritional state. As part of their first consultation at Botucatu Adolescent Outpatient Clinic-UNESP, 107 adolescents were nutritionally classified by BMI, according to age, gender, and bands proposed by CDC and AAP. Diet was evaluated by a 3 day 24h food recall, adopting 1300 mg/day calcium intake as recommended by Dietary Reference Intakes. Median calcium intake for the whole sample was 546.6 mg/day, with 91.30% female and 86.84% male presenting lower than adequate daily recommended ingestion levels (DRI). There was significant difference between calcium densities (Ca mg/1000 kcal) in eutrophic and overweight/obesity in males. Male adolescents showed an inverse relationship between calcium intake and adiposity (r = -0.488 and p = 0.0173), which corroborates the hypothesis that low calcium intake is linked to fatty tissue gain. Only 8.70% of female and 13.16% of male adolescents reached their daily recommended calcium intake levels. It must therefore be stressed that nutritional education is an important protection factor for children and adolescents in later life.

Calcium intake and its relationship with risk of overweight and obesity in adolescents / Ingesta de calcio y su relación con la prevalencia deriesgo de sobrepeso y obesidad en adolescentes

Adolescents’ eating habits are determined by social, psychological, economic, political, and educational influences. They tend to prefer foods with inadequate nutritional value and high fat and carbohydrate content which leads to excessive weight gain and for many, calcium intake is restricted. According to some authors, low calcium intake is linked to increased adiposity. The objective was to evaluate adolescent calcium intake and investigate a possible relationship between calcium intake and nutritional state. As part of their first consultation at Botucatu Adolescent Outpatient Clinic -UNESP, 107 adolescents were nutritionally classified by BMI, according to age, gender, and bands proposed by CDC and AAP. Diet was evaluated by a 3 day 24h food recall, adopting 1300mg/day calcium intake as recommended by Dietary Reference Intakes. Median calcium intake for the whole sample was 546.6mg/day, with 91.30 percent female and 86.84 percent male presenting lower than adequate daily recommended ingestion levels (DRI). There was significant difference between calcium densities (Ca mg/1000kcal) in eutrophic and overweight/obesity in males. Male adolescents showed an inverse relationship between calcium intake and adiposity (r= -0.488 and p=0.0173), which corroborates the hypothesis that low calcium intake is linked to fatty tissue gain. Only 8.70 percent of female and 13.16 percent of male adolescents reached their daily recommended calcium intake levels. It must therefore be stressed that nutritional education is an important protection factor for children and adolescents in later life.

Los hábitos alimentarios se desarrollan dependiendo de los determinantes sociales, psicológicos, económicos, políticos y educacionales y sus preferencias recaen sobre alimentos con inadecuado valor nutricional, elevado contenido de grasa y carbohidratos que conducen a un aumento excesivo de peso. De acuerdo con algunos autores la baja ingestión de calcio se asocia al incremento de la adiposidad. Los objetivos fueron evaluar la ingestión de calcio por adolescentes e investigar una posible relación con el estado nutricional. En su primera consulta en el Ambulatorio de Medicina del Adolescente-Botucatu-UNESP, 107 adolescentes se clasificaron nutricionalmente por el IMC, de acuerdo con la edad y sexo y puntos de corte propuestos por el CDC y AAP. La evaluación dietética fue realizada por el método de recordatorio de 24 hrs. en 3 días diferentes y se adoptó la recomendación de Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI), de 1.300 mg de Ca/día. La ingestión mediana de calcio para la muestra total fue de 546,6 mg/día. Un 91,3 por ciento de las adolescentes y un 86,8 por ciento de los jóvenes presentaron un consumo inferior a los valores de DRI. Al comparar la densidad de calcio (Ca mg/1.000 kcal) entre los grupos eutróficos y sobrepeso/obeso del sexo masculino, se constató una diferencia significativa. En los adolescentes masculinos se evidenció una relación inversa enttre consumo de calcio y adiposidad (r = -0,488 y p = 0,0173), lo cual confirma la hipótesis de que la baja ingestión de calcio se asocia al aumento de tejido graso. Solamente el 8,7 por ciento de las adolescentes mujeres alcanzaron las recomendaciones diarias de DRI y de los adolescente masculinos, el 13,16 por ciento.