Association of dietary patterns and body phenotypes in Brazilian adolescents

ObjectiveTo investigate the association between dietary patterns and physical activity and body phenotypes in Brazilian adolescents. MethodsCross-sectional study using data from a school-based study with 1,022 Brazilian adolescents aged 10 to 19 years. Body phenotypes (BP) and dietary patterns (DP) were defined using principal components analysis. BP was defined using anthropometric, body composition, biochemical, and sexual maturation, and DP from 19 food groups categorized from a food frequency questionnaire containing 58 food items. We performed a scatter plot to describe the relationship between energy expenditure assessed by MET and BP scores. The association between DP and BP, adjusted by sex, age and socioeconomic status, was assessed by linear regression model. ResultsWe identified five BP (BP1adiposity, BP2puberty, BP3biochemical, BP4muscular, BP5lipids_biochemical) and five DP (DP1ultraprocessed_foods, DP2fresh_foods, DP3bread_rice_beans, DP4culinary_preparation, DP5cakes_rice_beans). There are higher scores of BP_adiposity for obese adolescents, but energy expenditure was similar for obese and non-obese. Physical activity was positively associated with body mass index, BP_adiposity and BP_puberty. We observed negative association between DP_ultraprocessed and BMI, and a positive between DP_fresh_foods. DP_fresh_foods was positively associated with BP_adiposity; DP_ultraprocessed and DP_culinary_preparation were negatively associated with this BP. BP_biochemical was negatively associated with DP_fresh_foods. ConclusionWe identified negative association between DP mainly composed by ultraprocessed foods and fresh foods and BPadiposity. These associations need to be more explored, especially in adolescents, because both DP and BP were defined using multivariate analysis.