Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS), Bremen, Germany.
Unit of Nutritional Epidemiology, Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
J Nutr. 2024 Nov;154(11):3274-3285. doi: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.09.026. Epub 2024 Sep 25.
Intake of sweet and fatty snacks may partly contribute to the occurrence of obesity and other health conditions in childhood. Traditional dietary assessment methods may be limited in accurately assessing the intake of sweet and fatty snacks in children. Metabolite biomarkers may aid the objective assessment of children's food intake and support establishing diet-disease relationships.
The present study aimed to identify biomarkers of sweet and fatty snack intake in 2 independent cohorts of European children.
We used data from the IDEFICS/I.Family cohort from baseline (2007/2008) and 2 follow-up examination waves (2009/2010 and 2013/2014). In total, 1788 urine samples from 599 children were analyzed for untargeted metabolomics using high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Short-term dietary intake was assessed by 24-h dietary recalls, and habitual dietary intake was calculated with the National Cancer Institute method. Data from the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinal Designed (DONALD) cohort of 24-h urine samples (n = 567) and 3-d weighted dietary records were used for external replication of results. Multivariate modeling with unbiased variable selection in R algorithms and linear mixed models were used to identify novel biomarkers. Metabolite features significantly associated with dietary intake were then annotated.
In total, 66 metabolites were discovered and found to be statistically significant for chocolate candy; cakes, puddings, and cookies; candy and sweets; ice cream; and crisps. Most of the features (n = 62) could not be annotated. Short-term and habitual chocolate intake were positively associated with theobromine, xanthosine, and cyclo(L-prolyl-L-valyl). These results were replicated in the DONALD cohort. Short-term candy and sweet intake was negatively associated with octenoylcarnitine.
Of the potential metabolite biomarkers of sweet and fatty snacks in children, 3 biomarkers of chocolate intake, namely theobromine, xanthosine, and cyclo(L-prolyl-L-valyl), are externally replicated. However, these potential biomarkers require further validation in children.
甜食和高脂肪零食的摄入可能是儿童肥胖和其他健康问题发生的部分原因。传统的饮食评估方法可能难以准确评估儿童甜食和高脂肪零食的摄入量。代谢物生物标志物可能有助于客观评估儿童的食物摄入量，并支持建立饮食与疾病之间的关系。
本研究旨在鉴定 2 个欧洲儿童队列中甜食和高脂肪零食摄入的生物标志物。
我们使用了 IDEFICS/I.Family 队列的基线（2007/2008 年）和 2 个随访检查波（2009/2010 年和 2013/2014 年）的数据。总共分析了 1788 名 599 名儿童的尿液样本，使用高分辨率液相色谱-质谱法进行非靶向代谢组学分析。通过 24 小时膳食回忆评估短期膳食摄入量，使用国家癌症研究所方法计算习惯性膳食摄入量。使用多特蒙德营养和人体测量纵向设计（DONALD）队列的 24 小时尿液样本（n=567）和 3 天加权膳食记录的数据进行结果的外部验证。使用 R 算法中的无偏变量选择和线性混合模型进行多元建模，以鉴定新的生物标志物。然后对与饮食摄入有统计学显著关联的代谢物特征进行注释。
共发现 66 种代谢物，与巧克力糖果、蛋糕、布丁和饼干、糖果和甜食、冰淇淋和薯片显著相关。大多数特征（n=62）无法注释。短期和习惯性巧克力摄入量与可可碱、黄嘌呤核苷和环（L-脯氨酰-L-缬氨酰）呈正相关。这些结果在 DONALD 队列中得到了复制。短期糖果和甜食摄入量与辛烯酰肉碱呈负相关。
在儿童甜食和高脂肪零食的潜在代谢物生物标志物中，可可碱、黄嘌呤核苷和环（L-脯氨酰-L-缬氨酰）这 3 种巧克力摄入量的生物标志物得到了外部验证。然而，这些潜在的生物标志物需要在儿童中进一步验证。
