Yang Jingyun, Huang Yao, Wu Huilan, Wu Yixin, Wang Yun, Fan Hailing, Chen Mengjia, Wang Lizhen, Zhang Meixian
Department of Pediatrics, Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University, Linhai, Zhejiang, China.
Department of Pediatrics, The Second People's Hospital, Luqiao, Zhejiang, China.
Front Pediatr. 2025 Aug 21;13:1654992. doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1654992. eCollection 2025.
Order of eating is reportedly associated with childhood obesity. However, few studies have examined the relationship between the order of consumption of vegetables and meat/fish and childhood thinness. We aimed to investigate the effect of the order of consumption of meat/fish and vegetables on the risk of thinness in preschool children.
From December 1, 2021, to January 31, 2022, 419 thinness and 1,204 normal-weight preschool children were selected from kindergartens in Taizhou, China. We used a questionnaire to determine whether the children ate vegetables or meat/fish first at mealtimes and analyzed the association between the first food consumed and children's thinness status.
Overall, 53.4% and 46.6% of the children ate vegetables and meat/fish first, respectively. The percentage of eating vegetables first was higher in children with thinness than that in normal weight (58.95% vs. 51.41%, = 0.008). After adjusting for sex, parental education and parental BMI category, the odds ratio for being thin was 1.280 for children who ate vegetables first (95% confidence interval: 1.016-1.612, = 0.036) compared with those who ate meat/fish first.
Our study revealed that order of eating was associated with childhood thinness among preschool children. For children with thinness, we do not recommend that they eat vegetables first, but rather encourage them to eat meat/fish first.
据报道，进食顺序与儿童肥胖有关。然而，很少有研究探讨蔬菜和肉/鱼的食用顺序与儿童消瘦之间的关系。我们旨在研究肉/鱼和蔬菜的食用顺序对学龄前儿童消瘦风险的影响。
2021年12月1日至2022年1月31日，从中国台州的幼儿园选取了419名消瘦和1204名体重正常的学龄前儿童。我们通过问卷调查确定儿童在进餐时是先吃蔬菜还是先吃肉/鱼，并分析首先食用的食物与儿童消瘦状况之间的关联。
总体而言，分别有53.4%和46.6%的儿童先吃蔬菜和先吃肉/鱼。消瘦儿童中先吃蔬菜的比例高于体重正常的儿童（58.95%对51.41%，P = 0.008）。在调整性别、父母教育程度和父母BMI类别后，与先吃肉/鱼的儿童相比，先吃蔬菜的儿童消瘦的优势比为1.280（95%置信区间：1.016 - 1.612，P = 0.036）。
我们的研究表明，进食顺序与学龄前儿童的消瘦有关。对于消瘦的儿童，我们不建议他们先吃蔬菜，而是鼓励他们先吃肉/鱼。
