Mediterranean Diet, Physical Fitness and Body Composition in Sevillian Adolescents: A Healthy Lifestyle

Abstract

Childhood and adolescent obesity has become one of the most vital challenges to overcome in the present age. Physical fitness, physical activity and the Mediterranean diet (MD) are valuable tools for its prevention and treatment. The main objective of this study is to analyze the associations between health-related physical fitness components, body composition and adherence to the MD in 917 adolescents aged from 13- to 16-years-old. The ALPHA-Fitness Test was used to measure physical fitness and body composition, and the Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (KIDMED) questionnaire was employed to assess the adherence to the MD. The associations between variables were tested according to gender and age a generalized linear model (GLM) univariate analysis (two factors) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA, with Bonferroni posthoc). As to the body composition and physical fitness variables, significant differences were obtained in both genders but not in relation to the adherence to the MD. The boys performed better in the physical fitness tests. Age was a determinant factor in adherence to the MD in the total sample, lowering as the age of the sample increases. Both the boys and girls who had a significantly higher performance in the endurance test were those who showed high/medium adherence to the MD. It is concluded that higher levels of cardiovascular endurance in boys and girls are associated with a medium and high adherence to the MD.

Association among Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Cardiovascular, Obesity, and Anthropometric Variables of Overweight and Obese Middle-Aged and Older Adults

“…The same trend was found related with AMedDiet, especially for trunk fat, although differences were not significant. This confirms the results of previous studies whereby body composition changes were higher as related with CRF than with AMedDiet [76,77]. This finding is very interesting, as trunk fat was shown to have an independent association with BP parameters [58], especially with SBP, while BMI or PI, which related to body mass and height, were strongly correlated with DBP change [61].…”

“…Systematic endurance training, which is highly related with CRF [58,59], has an influence on these parameters [80]. In fact, according to the present results, when CRF is low, the AMedDiet is not a relevant factor [76,77]. Despite these promising results, questions remain.…”

Evaluation of Physical Fitness, Body Composition, and Adherence to Mediterranean Diet in Adolescents from Estonia: The AdolesHealth Study

“…In agreement with the results obtained by Ozen et al, which exhibited important differences in relation to a high and a low adherence in the population analyzed, with a clear trend to abandon the MD [60], the results found in the current research show a tendency to decrease the patterns related to the MD, since the average and low adhesion quantify more than 85% of the participating population. In addition, as in previous studies, there is no difference in adherence to the MD according to gender [20,24,61]. Moreover, similar to different studies, there is no difference between levels of adherence to the MD related to gender.…”

Association between Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Physical Fitness with Body Composition Parameters in 1717 European Adolescents: The AdolesHealth Study

“…When assessing PF and body composition parameters, the protocol established by the AFB was followed at all times. All the instruments used, and the procedures followed can be found in Galan-Lopez et al (2018, 2019) as part of a larger research project [23,24].…”