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New study links unhealthy eating to early drinking
Authors of a recent study suggest that unhealthy eating in childhood increases the risk of alcohol consumption in adolescence. The study results indicate that the effect of diet even has a stronger impact on teens alcohol consumption than parental education and household income.
Researchers studied the eating habits of more than 2,200 children from the European IDEFICS/I.Family cohort study. Participants were aged between ages 6 and 9 at baseline and were aged between 11 and 16 years at follow-up. Food frequency questionnaires were completed by parents on behalf of children, and later by adolescents themselves.
Children’s propensities to consume foods high in fat and sugar were calculated and dichotomised at median values. Adolescents’ use of alcohol was classified as at least weekly v. less frequent use.
Fivepercentofadolescentsreportedweeklyalcohol consumption. Children with high propensity to consume sugar and fat were at greater risk of later alcohol use, compared with children with low fat and low sugar propensity (relative risk=2·46; 95 %" "CI 1·47, 4·12), independent of age, sex and survey country. The association was not explained by parental income and education, strict parenting style or child’s health-related quality of life and was only partly mediated by sustained consumption of sugar and fat into adolescence.
The authors conclude that frequent consumption of foods high in fat and sugar in childhood predicted regular use of alcohol in adolescence. “We’ve done analyses that break down the correlations, and the strongest association we see is the one between the younger children’s diet and their alcohol consumption when they get older. What drives this association is undoubtedly this early influence,” Kirsten Mehlig, associate professor of epidemiology at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg and study lead author, said. Among the group at follow-up, 7% reported high sugar intake and 3% reported weekly alcohol consumption.
Source: Children’s propensity to consume sugar and fat predicts regular alcohol consumption in adolescence. K Mehlig, L H Bogl, M Hunsberger, W Ahrens. Public Health Nutritio . Volume 21, Issue 17, December 2018,
pp. 3202-3209. doi.org/10.1
Researchers studied the eating habits of more than 2,200 children from the European IDEFICS/I.Family cohort study. Participants were aged between ages 6 and 9 at baseline and were aged between 11 and 16 years at follow-up. Food frequency questionnaires were completed by parents on behalf of children, and later by adolescents themselves.
Children’s propensities to consume foods high in fat and sugar were calculated and dichotomised at median values. Adolescents’ use of alcohol was classified as at least weekly v. less frequent use.
Fivepercentofadolescentsreportedweeklyalcohol consumption. Children with high propensity to consume sugar and fat were at greater risk of later alcohol use, compared with children with low fat and low sugar propensity (relative risk=2·46; 95 %" "CI 1·47, 4·12), independent of age, sex and survey country. The association was not explained by parental income and education, strict parenting style or child’s health-related quality of life and was only partly mediated by sustained consumption of sugar and fat into adolescence.
The authors conclude that frequent consumption of foods high in fat and sugar in childhood predicted regular use of alcohol in adolescence. “We’ve done analyses that break down the correlations, and the strongest association we see is the one between the younger children’s diet and their alcohol consumption when they get older. What drives this association is undoubtedly this early influence,” Kirsten Mehlig, associate professor of epidemiology at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg and study lead author, said. Among the group at follow-up, 7% reported high sugar intake and 3% reported weekly alcohol consumption.
Source: Children’s propensity to consume sugar and fat predicts regular alcohol consumption in adolescence. K Mehlig, L H Bogl, M Hunsberger, W Ahrens. Public Health Nutritio . Volume 21, Issue 17, December 2018,
pp. 3202-3209. doi.org/10.1
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