Dairy intake and long-term body weight status in German children and adolescents: results from the DONALD study

Abstract

Purpose To analyse the association between intake of total dairy (TD) and types of dairy [liquid dairy (LD), solid dairy (SD), low-fat dairy (LFD), high-fat dairy (HFD), high sugar dairy (HSD), low-sugar dairy (LSD), not fermented dairy (NFD), as well as fermented dairy (FD)] and long-term changes in body weight status and composition among children and adolescents in Germany. Methods In total, 9999 3-day dietary records collected between 1985 and 2019 by 1126 participants (3.5–18.5 years; boys: 50.8%) of the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) study were analysed. Polynomial mixed-effects regression models were used to examine whether changes (median follow-up: 9 years) in the intake of TD and dairy types (in 100 g/1000 kcal total energy intake) were associated with changes in body-mass-index-standard-deviation-score (BMI-SDS); fat mass index (FMI); fat-free mass index (FFMI) over time. Results An individual increase in TD intake was slightly but significantly associated with an increase in BMI-SDS (β = 0.0092; p = 0.0371), FMI (β = 0.022; p = 0.0162), and FFMI (β = 0.0156; p = 0.0417) after adjustment for potential confounder. Analyses for LD (BMI-SDS: β = 0.0139; p = 0.0052; FMI: β = 0.0258; p = 0.0125; FFMI: β = 0.0239; p = 0.0052) and LSD intake (BMI-SDS: β = 0.0132; p = 0.0041, FMI: β = 0.02; p = 0.0316, FFMI: β = 0.0183; p = 0.0189) showed similar results to TD. Both processing method and fat content showed no association with body composition in our analyses. Conclusion Increases in TD, LD, and LSD intake showed small but significant increases in BMI and concomitant increases in fat mass and lean mass. However, the observed changes were too small to expect biological or physiological meaningful effects. Overall, our results showed that policies to promote dairy intake in childhood are to be welcomed, as no negative effects on body composition are expected, while the intake of important nutrients for growth is ensured. The type of dairy does not seem to matter.

The association between dairy intake in adolescents on inflammation and risk markers of type 2 diabetes during young adulthood: results of the DONALD study

“…High levels of adipose tissue were assumed to result in the development of insulin resistance (52) . In a previous study based on our sample, higher TD intake led to a more favourable body composition in the long term; however, higher intake of low-fat dairy showed no association (23) . However, our sample is characterised by a rather low BMI compared with the general population in Germany (53,54) .…”

“…A finer subdivision would have led to very low intake quantities. The underlying classification has already been used in our previous publications ( 22 , 23 ) and allows an overall interpretation of the results.…”

“…According to Hohoff et al ( 22 , 23 ) , the following types of dairy were included in the analyses: TD …”

“…All associations with inflammation were analysed for each biomarker of low-grade systemic inflammation and the pro-inflammatory score. Compared with similar studies (24,37) , results from the regression analyses are presented as adjusted least-square means (95 % CI) by Table 3 Classification of dairy products*, DONALD study (23) Included dairy products sex-specific tertiles (low, medium and high intake) of the respective predictor, with P trend values from models with the predictors as continuous variables.…”

The Role of Milk on Children’s Weight Status: An Epidemiological Study among Preadolescents in Greece

“…So far, several systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the paediatric population have demonstrated inconsistent and conflicting results [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. The most recently published German longitudinal study with a median follow-up of 9 years in children demonstrated that the consumption of all types of dairy products was associated with significant increases in Body Mass Index (BMI) (although small) as well as in fat mass and lean mass [ 10 ]. The findings of the most recently conducted meta-analyses [ 9 ] revealed controversial findings depending on the study design.…”