Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire Correlated with Body Compositions of Thai Children and Adolescents with Obesity: A Pilot Study

Cross-sectional and prospective associations between children's eating behavior and visceral fat area and trunk fat mass

Background

Understanding children's eating behaviors is crucial for elucidating the etiology of childhood obesity. However, the relationship between these behaviors and abdominal fat accumulation remains poorly understood. This study aims to investigate this association in primary school children.

Methods

This study included 1,475 children aged 8-10 years in Ningbo, China. Body composition was measured both at baseline (September 2022) and after 9 months of follow-up (June 2023). Primary caregivers completed the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ). A mixed-effects linear model was applied to analyze the relationships between children's eating behaviors and body composition.

Results

Greater visceral fat area (VFA) was associated with greater slowness in eating [β = 0.25 (0.02, 0.49)], greater food responsiveness [β = 0.29 (0.14, 0.43)], increased emotional undereating [β = 0.35 (0.17, 0.54)], and more emotional overeating [β = 0.21 (0.02, 0.39)]. Children with greater trunk fat mass (TrFM) tended to have greater food responsiveness [β = 0.02 (0.01, 0.03)] and greater enjoyment of food [β = 0.01 (0.00, 0.03)], increased emotional undereating [β = 0.02 (0.01, 0.03)] and emotional overeating [β = 0.02 (0.00, 0.03)]. Prospectively, positive correlations were observed between VFA and food responsiveness [β = 0.18 (0.02, 0.35)], as were emotional undereating [β = 0.31 (0.10, 0.52)] and emotional overeating [β = 0.24 (0.03, 0.46)]. Similarly, TrFM was positively correlated with food responsiveness [β = 0.02 (0.00, 0.03)], enjoyment of food [β = 0.02 (0.00, 0.04)], emotional undereating [β = 0.02 (0.01, 0.04)] and emotional overeating [β = 0.02 (0.01, 0.04)].

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that eating behaviors are significantly associated with abdominal fat accumulation in primary school children. Addressing specific eating behaviors may be crucial in mitigating abdominal fat and its related health risks.

Basal metabolic rate mediates the causal relationship between gut microbiota and osteoarthritis: a two-step bidirectional Mendelian randomization study

Background

The relationship between gut microbiota and osteoarthritis (OA) occurrence remains unclear. Existing research needs to clearly understand how basal metabolic rate (BMR) regulates this relationship. Therefore, using a two-step bidirectional Mendelian Randomization approach, our study aims to investigate whether BMR levels mediate the causal relationship between gut microbiota and OA.

Methods

In this study, we examined publicly available summary statistics from Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) to determine the correlation between gut microbiota and OA. The analysis included one primary dataset and two secondary datasets. Initially, a two-step, two-sample, and reverse MR analysis was performed to identify the causal relationship between gut microbiota and OA. Subsequently, a two-step MR analysis revealed that the relationship between microbiota and OA is mediated by BMR. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the study results.

Results

In our analysis of the primary dataset, we discovered a positive correlation between three taxa and the outcome of OA, and eight taxa exhibited a negative correlation with the OA outcome. Through comparisons with the secondary dataset and multiple testing corrections, we found a negative association between the class Actinobacteria (OR=0.992886277, p-value = 0.003) and the likelihood of OA occurrence. Notably, knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and hip osteoarthritis (HOA) had a strong negative correlation (OR = 0.927237553/0.892581219). Our analysis suggests that BMR significantly mediates the causal pathway from Actinobacteria to OA, with a mediated effect of 2.59%. Additionally, BMR mediates 3.98% of the impact in the path from the order Bifidobacteriales and the family Bifidobacteriaceae to OA. Besides these findings, our reverse analysis did not indicate any significant effect of OA on gut microbiota or BMR.

Conclusion

Our research results indicate that an increase in the abundance of specific gut microbial taxa is associated with a reduced incidence of OA, and BMR levels mediate this causal relationship. Further large-scale randomized controlled trials are necessary to validate the causal impact of gut microbiota on the risk of OA. This study provides new insights into the potential prevention of OA by modulating the gut microbiota.

Inulin supplementation exhibits increased muscle mass via gut-muscle axis in children with obesity: double evidence from clinical and in vitro studies

Gut microbiota manipulation may reverse metabolic abnormalities in obesity. Our previous studies demonstrated that inulin supplementation significantly promoted Bifidobacterium and fat-free mass in obese children. We aimed to study gut-muscle axis from inulin supplementation in these children. In clinical phase, the plasma samples from 46 participants aged 7-15 years, were analyzed for muscle biomarkers before and after 6-month inulin supplementation. In parallel, the plausible mechanism of muscle production via gut-muscle axis was examined using macrophage cell line. Bifidobacterium was cultured in semi-refined medium with inulin used in the clinical phase. Cell-free supernatant was collected and used in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced macrophage cell line to determine inflammatory and anti-inflammatory gene expression. In clinical phase, IL-15 and creatinine/cystatin C ratio significantly increased from baseline to the 6th month. In vitro study showed that metabolites derived from Bifidobacterium capable of utilizing inulin contained the abundance of SCFAs. In the presence of LPS, treatment from Bifidobacterium + inulin downregulated TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, and iNOS, but upregulated FIZZ-1 and TGF-β expression. Inulin supplementation promoted the muscle biomarkers in agreement with fat-free mass gain, elucidating by Bifidobacterium metabolites derived from inulin digestion showed in vitro anti-inflammatory activity and decreased systemic pro-inflammation, thus promoting muscle production via gut-muscle axis response.Clinical Trial Registry number: NCT03968003.

Effects and Mechanisms of Probiotics, Prebiotics, Synbiotics, and Postbiotics on Metabolic Diseases Targeting Gut Microbiota: A Narrative Review

Metabolic diseases are serious threats to public health and related to gut microbiota. Probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and postbiotics (PPSP) are powerful regulators of gut microbiota, thus possessing prospects for preventing metabolic diseases. Therefore, the effects and mechanisms of PPSP on metabolic diseases targeting gut microbiota are worth discussing and clarifying. Generally, PPSP benefit metabolic diseases management, especially obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The underlying gut microbial-related mechanisms are mainly the modulation of gut microbiota composition, regulation of gut microbial metabolites, and improvement of intestinal barrier function. Moreover, clinical trials showed the benefits of PPSP on patients with metabolic diseases, while the clinical strategies for gestational diabetes mellitus, optimal formula of synbiotics and health benefits of postbiotics need further study. This review fully summarizes the relationship between probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics, and metabolic diseases, presents promising results and the one in dispute, and especially attention is paid to illustrates potential mechanisms and clinical effects, which could contribute to the next research and development of PPSP.