Rapid infant weight gain predicts childhood overweight

Objective : To determine among a contemporary cohort whether rapid weight gain between birth and 6 months is associated with risk of childhood overweight and if this risk differs by ethnicity and/or breast‐feeding history. Research Methods and Procedures : This was a cross‐sectional survey in 1999 to 2000 of parents/guardians of children participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children in New York State. Measurements were abstracted by chart review, including weight at birth and 6 months, and height and weight at time of survey and every 6 months subsequently. Overweight at 4 years of age was defined as a BMI ≥ 95th age‐ and sex‐specific percentiles. Results : The study sample was 32% Hispanic, 19% black, and 49% white; 17% of children were overweight. Rate of infant weight gain (expressed in terms of 100 g/mo) was significantly associated with being overweight at 4 years (odds ratio, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.3 to 1.6 after adjusting for history of breast‐feeding, birth weight, and ethnicity). The odds of being overweight at 4 years of age for Hispanic children were twice those of non‐Hispanic children (odds ratio, 2.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.5 to 3.3). The population‐attributable risk of overweight at 4 years of age was 19% for children in the highest quintile of infant weight gain. Discussion : Among this contemporary, multi‐ethnic cohort, rapid infant weight gain was associated with increased risk of being overweight at 4 years of age, independently of potential confounders. Identification of the risk factors contributing to rapid weight gain during infancy might improve early recognition and guide strategies for optimal nutrition to prevent the development of childhood overweight.     

Overconsumption and obesity: peptides and susceptibility to weight gain

Physiological control of feeding is mediated by tonic and episodic signalling systems. These are sometimes thought of as long-term and short-term control. Tonic signals arise from tissue stores whereas episodic signals oscillate periodically with the consumption of food. These physiological controls are paralleled in the motivation to eat by long-acting enduring traits (such as disinhibition) and by short-acting states (such as hunger). Peptides are usually envisaged to exert an action on appetite control through the modulation of states such as hunger and satiety (fullness). Here we provide evidence that peptides involved in tonic regulation--such as leptin--may express a control over appetite motivation through an effect on traits that confer a constant readiness to eat, whereas episodic peptides such as GLP-1 influence appetite motivation through a state such as hunger. The distinction between tonic and episodic regulation, and between traits and states has implications for understanding overconsumption and the susceptibility to weight gain.     

Psychological workload and weight gain among women with and without familial obesity

Objective : High job demands and low job influence may be associated with subsequent weight gain. Predisposition to obesity may further modify such associations. The purpose of the study was to determine whether familial predisposition to obesity modified associations between psychological workload and 6‐year weight changes among nurses. Research Methods and Procedures : A total of 6404 Danish nurses 45 to 65 years old, who belonged to the workforce in both 1993 and 1999, answered a questionnaire on psychological workload, body weight, and familial obesity. Women were considered to be predisposed to obesity if they were overweight and had at least one obese parent. Parents’ body shape was reported using pictograms. Results : An increased psychological workload, reflected by high job demands and low influence in job, was associated with an increased body weight. This was particularly the case for nurses being predisposed to obesity, suggesting a synergy between familial obesity predisposition and the psychological workload environment. An interaction test among job demands, familial predisposition to obesity, and weight gain on adjusted data was made. The test showed p = 0.05. The adjusted interaction test among influence in job, familial predisposition to obesity, and weight gain showed p = 0.02. Predisposed nurses who were busy in their job gained 4.4 kg, whereas other nurses gained only 3.2 kg during the 6 years. Similarly, nurses predisposed to obesity with low influence in job had a higher body weight gain (5.4 vs. 3.2 kg) compared with other nurses. Discussion : High psychological workload due to high job demands and low influence in job seems to predict weight gain in general and, in particular, among those nurses with a familial predisposition to obesity.     

Risks of maternal prepregnancy overweight/obesity,excessive gestational weight gain,and bottle-feeding in infancy rapid weight gain: evidence from a cohort study in China

Rapid weight gain(RWG) in infants is associated with numerous health problems, and its risk factors are still unclear. We assessed 98,097 maternal-infant pairs from a population-based cohort study and followed up with them until the infants were6 months old. We assessed the associations between maternal prepregnancy weight status; gestational weight gain; feeding pattern; and infants' RWG at 0–1, 0–3, 1–3, and 3–6 months using multivariate unconditional logistic regression models, with controlled confounders. We found that maternal prepregnancy weight status, gestational weight gain, and feeding pattern at the1 st, 3 rd, and 6 th months had significant impacts on the infants' RWG at each time period(P0.05). Infants with overweight/obese mothers had a higher risk of RWG after birth, whereas those of mothers who experienced excessive gestational weight gain had higher risks of RWG from birth than the other groups(P0.01). Infants who were formula-fed had a higher risk of RWG than breastfed infants at the same time point(P0.01). In conclusion, maternal prepregnancy obesity, excessive gestational weight gain, and formula-feeding were risk factors for infants' RWG during the first 6 months of life.     

Risk factors and outcomes of maternal obesity and excessive weight gain during pregnancy

Objective:

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among women of reproductive age is increasing. We aimed to determine risk factors and maternal, fetal and childhood consequences of maternal obesity and excessive gestational weight gain.

Design and Methods:

The study was embedded in a population‐based prospective cohort study among 6959 mothers and their children. The study was based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2001–2005).

Results:

Maternal lower educational level, lower household income, multiparity, and FTO risk allel were associated with an increased risk of maternal obesity, whereas maternal European ethnicity, nulliparity, higher total energy intake, and smoking during pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of excessive gestational weight gain (all p‐values <0.05). As compared to normal weight, maternal obesity was associated with increased risks of gestational hypertension (OR 6.31 (95% CI 4.30, 9.26)), preeclampsia (OR (3.61, (95% CI 2.04, 6.39)), gestational diabetes (OR 6.28 (95%CI 3.01, 13.06)), caesarean delivery (OR 1.91 (95% CI 1.46, 2.50)), delivering large size for gestational age infants (OR 2.97 (95% CI 2.16, 4.08)), and childhood obesity (OR 5.02 (95% CI:2.97, 8.45)). Weaker associations of excessive gestational weight gain with maternal, fetal and childhood outcomes were observed, with the strongest effects for first trimester weight gain.

Conclusions:

Our study shows that maternal obesity and excessive weight gain during pregnancy are associated with socio‐demographic, lifestyle, and genetic factors and with increased risks of adverse maternal, fetal and childhood outcomes. As compared to prepregnancy overweight and obesity, excessive gestational weight gain has a limited influence on adverse pregnancy outcomes.     

Parental obesity moderates the relationship between childhood appetitive traits and weight

Objective:

In this study, the independent and combined associations between childhood appetitive traits and parental obesity on weight gain from 0 to 24 months and body mass index (BMI) z‐score at 24 months in a diverse community‐based sample of dual parent families (n = 213) were examined.

Design and Methods:

Participants were mothers who had recently completed a randomized trial of weight loss for overweight/obese postpartum women. As measures of childhood appetitive traits, mothers completed subscales of the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire, including Desire to Drink (DD), Enjoyment of Food (EF), and Satiety Responsiveness (SR), and a 24‐h dietary recall for their child. Heights and weights were measured for all children and mothers and self‐reported for mothers' partners. The relationship between children's appetitive traits and parental obesity on toddler weight gain and BMI z‐score were evaluated using multivariate linear regression models, controlling for a number of potential confounders.

Results:

Having two obese parents was related to greater weight gain from birth to 24 months independent of childhood appetitive traits, and although significant associations were found between appetitive traits (DD and SR) and child BMI z‐score at 24 months, these associations were observed only among children who had two obese parents. When both parents were obese, increasing DD and decreasing SR were associated with a higher BMI z‐score.

Conclusions:

The results highlight the importance of considering familial risk factors when examining the relationship between childhood appetitive traits on childhood obesity.     

Evidence that obesity risk factor potencies are weight dependent, a phenomenon that may explain accelerated weight gain in western societies

Background

We have shown that individuals at the highest percentiles of the body mass index (BMI) distribution (i.e., most overweight) experience greater increases in body weight from sedentary lifestyle than those from the lowest percentiles. The purpose of the current analyses was to assess whether recent, accelerated increases in obesity could potentially be due to increased vulnerability to obesity risk factors as the population has become more overweight.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Quantile regression was used to compare BMI population percentiles to obesity risk factors (lower education, diets characterized by high-meat/low-fruit content, parental adiposity) in two independent samples of men (N₁ = 3,513, N₂ = 11,365) and women (N₁ = 15,809, N₂ = 10,159). The samples were subsets of the National Walkers'' (Study 1) and Runners'' (Study 2) Health Studies whose physical activities fell short of nationally recommended activity levels. The data were adjusted for age, race, and any residual effects of physical activity. The regression slopes for BMI vs. education, diet, and family history became progressively stronger from the lowest (e.g., 5^th, 6^th…) to the highest (e.g., …, 94^th, 95^th) BMI percentiles. Compared to the 10^th BMI percentile, their effects on the 90^th BMI percentile were: 1) 2.7- to 8.6-fold greater in women and 2.0- to 2.4-fold greater in men for education; 2) 3.6- to 4.8-fold greater in women and 1.7- to 2.7-fold greater in men for diet; and 3) 2.0- to 2.6-fold greater in women and 1.7-fold greater in men for family history.

Conclusions/Significance

Thus we propose risk factors that produce little weight gain in lean individuals may become more potent with increasing adiposity. This leads us to hypothesize that an individual''s obesity is itself a major component of their obesogenic environment, and that, the cycle of weight gain and increased sensitivity to obesity risk factors may partly explain recent increases in obesity in western societies.     

Parental employment,family routines and childhood obesity

Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (ECLS-K) data from kindergarten through eighth grade, this paper investigate the relationships among maternal employment, family routines and obesity. More hours worked by the mother tend to be negatively related to positive routines like eating meals as a family or at regular times, or having family rules about hours of television watched. Many of these same routines are significantly related to the probability of being obese, implying that family routines may be a mechanism by which maternal employment intensity affects children's obesity. However, inclusion of family routines in the obesity regression does not appreciably change the estimated effect of maternal employment hours. Thus, the commonly estimated deleterious effect of maternal employment on children's obesity cannot be explained by family routines, leaving the exact mechanisms an open question for further exploration.     

Green tea polyphenols decrease weight gain,ameliorate alteration of gut microbiota,and mitigate intestinal inflammation in canines with high-fat-diet-induced obesity

Green tea polyphenols (GTPs) exhibit beneficial effects towards obesity and intestinal inflammation; however, the mechanisms and association with gut microbiota are unclear. We examined the role of the gut microbiota of GTPs treatment for obesity and inflammation. Canines were fed either a normal diet or high-fat diet with low (0.48% g/kg), medium (0.96% g/kg), or high (1.92% g/kg), doses of GTPs for 18 weeks. GTPs decreased the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and Fusobacteria and increased the relative abundance of Firmicutes as revealed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis. The relative proportion of Acidaminococcus, Anaerobiospirillum, Anaerovibrio, Bacteroides, Blautia, Catenibactetium, Citrobacter, Clostridium, Collinsella, and Escherichia were significantly associated with GTPs-induced weight loss. GTPs significantly (P<.01) decreased expression levels of inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β, and inhibited induction of the TLR4 signaling pathway compared with high-fat diet. We show that the therapeutic effects of GTPs correspond with changes in gut microbiota and intestinal inflammation, which may be related to the anti-inflammatory and anti-obesity mechanisms of GTPs.     

Prolonged hyperphagia with high-fat feeding contributes to exacerbated weight gain in rats with adult-onset obesity

Leptin-resistant rats, when given a high-fat (HF) diet, have a delayed normalization of caloric intake and greater weight gain than those on a chow diet. Because aged, obese rats are leptin resistant, these data predict that they will also have a delayed normalization of caloric intake and exacerbated weight gain when provided a HF diet. To investigate this hypothesis, along with the consequences of a HF diet on voluntary wheel running, we compared various ages of rats on a HF or chow diet. HF-fed young rats spontaneously divided into diet-induced obese and diet-resistant rats. However, all aged rats were susceptible to the weight-gaining effects of HF feeding. Rate of initial weight gain was proportional to age, and peak caloric intake on the HF diet and the days required to normalize caloric intake to basal levels increased with age. Responsiveness to peripheral leptin before HF feeding revealed a dose-response decrease in food intake and body weight in the young but no responses in the aged to even the highest dose, 0.5 mg/day. In addition, both age and HF feeding decreased the tendency for wheel running, suggesting the propensity for inactivity with age and HF feeding may contribute to age-related obesity and accelerate the rate of diet-induced obesity. These results demonstrate that aged rats are more susceptible to the detrimental effects of a HF diet.