Diet changes-not a little physical activity-may best explain the crisis of childhood obesity

According to a Baylor University study that provides insights into the global obesity epidemic, fluctuations in food consumption obtained in non-traditional markets are not the total calories burned daily, but the indigenous children of the Amazon. Is definitely associated with body fat.

Dr. Samuel Aracher, an assistant professor of anthropology at Baylor University, CIFAR Azurieri Global Scholar, and lead author of the study, said: “Using Gold Standard measurements of energy consumption, Amazon’s relatively lean rural foragers-horticulturist kids have about the same total calories as kids around their much fatter cities. It shows that you spend every day of your daily calories as a child living in an industrialized United States.

“Variations such as habitual physical activity and immune activity do not have a detectable effect on the child’s daily energy expenditure in our sample,” he said.

“Daily energy consumption as a child is not reduced by market integration and has nothing to do with Amazon obesity,” the study said. Nutrition Journal, The flagship journal of the American Society for Nutrition, and funded by the National Science Foundation.

“The first results alone are exciting in confirming previous findings regarding the relative stability of children’s daily energy consumption across different lifestyles and environments,” Urlacher said. “But our research goes a step further: it’s consistently more body for Amazon kids who eat higher-calorie market foods, not kids who burn less calories every day. Indicates that you have fat.

“In summary, these findings suggest that dietary changes are likely to be a major driver of the global rise in childhood obesity, especially in the context of rapid urbanization and market integration in low- and middle-income countries. I support that view, “he said.

According to the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, the global proportion of overweight / obesity in school-age children and adolescents has risen from 4% in 1975 to 18% in 2016. This reflects a major global health crisis. Overweight / obese children often remain so until adulthood. They have a short life expectancy and are at increased risk of developing non-communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

“The most rapid increase in childhood overweight and obesity is currently seen in rural areas and low- and middle-income countries, but simply simplifying the energy consumption of children in these environments to identify the cause of energy. Few studies have actually measured it, rather than presuming it to. “Imbalance.”

To investigate the diet and energy consumption of school-age children during the transition to early market integration and overweight / obesity, Urlacher and co-workers * have found 43 rural areas and 34 urban areas in Amazon Ecuador. Data was collected among the children of Shuar. Shuar is a large indigenous people of about 50,000. The children in the rural survey sample live in geographically isolated areas and rely primarily on self-sufficient lifestyles based on hunting, fishing, foraging and small-scale horticulture. In contrast, the children in the survey samples around the city live in regional market centers with access to roads, hospitals, stores, restaurants and other market facilities.

To measure variability in market integration between households, researchers gathered information such as income and access to water. They also measured physical activity in children using wearable devices and measured immune activity by measuring biomarkers in minimally invasive finger-stab blood samples. Most importantly, researchers use a “double-labeled water” stable isotope tracking method to measure a child’s daily energy expenditure, and a respiratory measurement method to measure a child’s resting energy expenditure. Was measured. Both are participant-friendly, gold standard methods.

Research has found it:

• Children around cities have an average of 65% more body fat than children in rural areas, and more than one-third of children around cities are classified as overweight compared to having no children in rural areas.
• Children in the suburbs eat more than four times as many products in the market as rural children.
• Children in the suburbs and rural areas have the same level of physical activity.
• Children in the suburbs consume less 108 calories per day than children in rural areas at rest. This is partly related to 16-47% lower levels of immune activity.
• Market integration, immune activity, and physical activity measurements do not have a detectable effect on a child’s overall energy expenditure, and children in urban and rural areas consume about the same number of calories.
• Fluctuations in food consumption in the market are related to child body fat, not daily energy expenditure.

This study is the first to measure a child’s energy expenditure across market integration in a single population, as well as measuring diet, physical activity, and immune activity. According to Urlacher, the finding that there is no impact of market integration on measured daily energy expenditure is consistent with previous reports between adults and babies. It also supports an evolutionary model of childhood energy constraint-allocation trade-offs, detailed by researchers in a 2019 paper published in the journal. Science Advances..

By simultaneously measuring multiple aspects of the energy balance equation, researchers found that their findings promoted an increase in childhood obesity in many populations, rather than reducing daily energy consumption. We believe that it provides compelling evidence of perhaps a major role in changing.

“Our findings are consistent with an increasing number of studies pointing out that poor diet is the most important underlying factor in the development of childhood obesity,” Urlacher said. “Exercise remains an important part of this equation and is essential for a healthy life, but diet seems to be more and more directly related to childhood obesity and long-term energy balance. ”

Researchers plan to advance this study by collecting longitudinal data to assess the lifelong development of obesity and cardiovascular metabolic disease in individual children. They also plan to collect more detailed dietary data and analyze a wider range of lifestyle and biological factors to identify the causative pathway. At the heart of these efforts is to determine how to best apply the findings to improve the health of children in low- and middle-income countries.

“Childhood obesity is a complex problem that must be addressed at various levels, from biological to environmental, economic, social and political,” Urlacher said.

“After all, everyone who tackles this problem wants the same thing. It’s about improving the lifelong health and well-being of children. Shuar, who has made this work especially through generosity and partnership. I hope that we can ultimately contribute to that effort. Research is possible. “

###

* Financial support for research was provided by the National Science Foundation. Collaborators included the Faculty of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University, the Faculty of Health Sciences at San Francisco de Quito University, the Faculty of Anthropology at the University of Oregon, the Faculty of Public Health Sciences at Loyola University, and the Faculty of Anthropology. Faculty of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University and Queens College.