Abstract
Mounting evidence points towards the existence of an association between energy intake in the evening and an increased prevalence and risk of being overweight and of obesity. The present study aimed to describe diurnal eating patterns (DEP) in a nationally representative sample of UK adolescents and to relate the derived DEP to anthropometrical measures. Data from four-day food records of adolescents aged 11–18 years participating in the 2008–2012 UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey Rolling Programme (NDNS RP) was utilised. The DEP were derived using a principal component analysis on the correlation matrix. Three orthogonal diurnal patterns were interpretable as (i) a linear contrast (8% of total system variation) between breakfast and an earlier lunch vs. a later lunch, late dinner, and evening/night snack, renamed “phase shift” DEP; (ii) a linear contrast (6.0% of system variation) between midmorning snacks, late lunch, and early dinner vs. breakfast, early and late morning snacks, early lunch, midafternoon snacks, and late dinner, renamed “early eating and grazing” DEP; (iii) a linear contrast (6.0% of system variation) between late main meals vs. early main meals and night snacks which was renamed “early main meals and night snacks vs. late main meals” DEP. After the adjustment for confounders, every 1 unit increase in the “early main meals and night snacks vs. late main meals”’ DEP score was significantly associated with a 0.29 kg/m2 and 11.6 mm increase in Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference, respectively. There were no significant associations with the other two main DEPs. In conclusion, adolescents who tended to eat large early main meals and night snacks rather than slightly later main meals without night snacks had higher BMI and waist circumference. Further research is required to explore the determinants of DEP and to explore the impact of the context of eating and socioecological factors in the development of specific DEP.
Highlights
Mounting evidence suggests a potential association between the timing of energy intake and obesity
The study population consisted of a complete-case sample of 1438 adolescents aged 11–18 years who participated in the 2008–2012 National Diet and Nutrition Rolling Programme (NDNS RP)
The study identified three interpretable diurnal eating patterns (DEP) in adolescents characterised by different distributions of energy intake across the day
Summary
Mounting evidence suggests a potential association between the timing of energy intake and obesity. Nutrients 2019, 11, 422 meta-analysis of studies in shift-workers [5] have found associations between evening or nighttime energy intake and obesity This evidence is further reinforced by experimental studies in adults demonstrating that a shift in energy intake towards earlier in the day leads to weight-loss [6] and promotes weight-loss maintenance [7], whilst evening and nighttime energy intake may potentially act as important target points for dietary interventions; focusing on describing the association between one predefined eating occasion or meal slot (i.e., evening or nighttime) and obesity does not provide a holistic perspective on how other eating occasions or meal slots of potential equal importance may influence adiposity [8,9,10]. Based on the cited literature, we hypothesize that diurnal patterns characterized by energy intake in the late evening/night would be associated to a greater BMI and WC
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