Preliminary evidence for an impulsivity-based thrifty eating phenotype

Abstract

IntroductIon: Low birth weight is associated with obesity and an increased risk for metabolic/cardiovascular diseases in later life. results: The results of the snack delay test, which encompassed four distinct trials, indicated that the gender × intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) × trial interaction was a predictor of the ability to delay the food reward (P = 0.002). among children with normal birth weights, girls showed a greater ability to delay food rewards than did boys (P = 0.014).In contrast, among children with IUGR, there was no such differential ability between girls and boys. Furthermore, in girls, impulsive responding predicted both increased consumption of palatable fat (P = 0.007) and higher BMIs (P = 0.020) at 48 mo of age, although there was no such association with BMI at 36 mo. dIscussIon: In girls, the quality of fetal growth may contribute to impulsive eating, which may promote an increased intake of fats and consequently higher BMIs. as with the original thrifty phenotype, such a mechanism would be adaptive when food supplies are sparse, but would be problematic in societies with ample access to calorically rich foods. Methods: We examined whether the quality of intrauterine growth programs obesogenic eating behaviors, by investigating (i) the relationship between birth weight and impulsive eating in 3-year-old children (using the snack delay test), and (ii) whether impulsive eating predicts fat intake and/or BMI at 4 years of age (using a laboratory-based test meal).

Dietary behaviors of adults born prematurely may explain future risk for cardiovascular disease

“…Similar to previous research, PT-adults had less liking for protein foods (Barbieri et al, 2009; Migraine et al, 2013) and wine (Cooke, 2004; Roberts et al, 2013), and greater liking for sweets (Ayres et al, 2012; Barbieri et al, 2009; Silveira et al, 2012) than FT-adults. The PT-adults with lower birth weight also had greater liking for sweets while less liking for fruits/vegetables, consistent with prior findings (Barbieri et al, 2009; Kaseva et al, 2013; Silveira et al, 2012). Contrary to previous findings (Stein et al, 2006), birth weight was not associated with liking for salty foods, which could be explained by differences in the study samples, as we only included preterm adults with birth weight <1850 grams.…”

“…Individuals born prematurely also may not appropriately self-control these less healthy food preferences. We found that PT-adults had less dietary restraint than the FT-adults or norms of college-aged students, which may parallel findings of higher impulsive eating behaviors among preschoolers born with intrauterine growth restriction (Silveira et al, 2012). …”

“…These risk factors may result from the prematurity, including adverse prenatal environments with maternal health complications (fetal programming), and/or challenges in developing healthy diets, including food sensitivities and intolerances (Barbieri et al, 2009; Behrman & Butler, 2007; Kaseva et al, 2013; Silveira et al, 2012), food neophobia (Migraine et al, 2013) and fussy eating (Samara, Johnson, Lamberts, Marlow, & Wolke, 2010), which parallels avoidance of risk taking (Hack et al, 2012; Roberts et al, 2013) and sensation seeking (Alley & Potter, 2011; Allin et al, 2006; Pliner & Melo, 1997). Intrauterine growth restriction with or without prematurity is linked to greater preference for sweets (Ayres et al, 2012; Barbieri et al, 2009; Silveira et al, 2012), salty taste (Stein, Cowart, & Beauchamp, 2006) and lower affinity/intakes of protein-rich foods and fruits (Kaseva et al, 2013; Migraine et al, 2013) in children and higher intakes of carbohydrates (Barbieri et al, 2009) and lower intakes of fruits, vegetables (Kaseva et al, 2013) and alcohol (Cooke, 2004; Roberts et al, 2013) in adults. A recent analysis of a large prospective cohort study suggested the additive effects of unhealthy lifestyle (scored from diet, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption and BMI) and low birth weight on greater relative risk of type 2 diabetes through multivariate logistic modeling (Li et al, 2015), yet the study sample had lower representation of low-birth weight, relied on self-reported birth weight and did not control for the effect of being born prematurely.…”

Better quality of mother–child interaction at 4 years of age decreases emotional overeating in IUGR girls

“…Interestingly, the quality of mother-infant interaction is also an important factor persistently modulating the HPA axis functioning (Francis, Diorio, Liu, & Meaney, 1999;Liu et al, 1997;McGowan et al, 2009); this could affect eating in response to emotional stimuli and ultimately growth in IUGR girls, as seen in our study. The associations described here were limited to IUGR girls, and not boys, similarly to what we have previously described (Barbieri et al, 2009;Silveira et al, 2012). Other studies have also shown sex differences in the moderator effect of genetic polymorphisms (e.g.…”

“…Mothers of SGA infants also have higher frequency of behaviors indicative of feeding difficulties than their appropriate for gestational age counterparts (Mullen, Coll, Vohr, Muriel, & Oh, 1988). Therefore IUGR children may suffer from a double burden of vulnerability in terms of feeding modulation: their metabolic adaptations lead to persistent programming of appetite, food preferences (Ayres et al, 2012;Barbieri et al, 2009;Crume et al, 2013;Kaseva et al, 2013;Lussana et al, 2008;Migraine et al, 2013;Perala et al, 2012;Silveira et al, 2012;Stein et al, 2009) and chronic adult disease risk (Barker et al, 1989;Bettiol et al, 2007;Hales et al, 1991;Ravelli et al, 1976); in addition, their motherinfant relationship may affect feeding behaviors and long-term overweight risk. Interventions aiming at improving this interaction may be of benefit, especially for this population of IUGR children.…”