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Clinical Studies and Practice

Prospective associations of dietary insulin demand, glycemic index, and glycemic load during puberty with body composition in young adulthood

International Journal of Obesity volume 36, pages 1463–1471 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background:

Puberty is a so-called critical period for overweight development and is characterized by physiological insulin resistance during mid-puberty. This study addressed the hypothesis that habitual consumption of a diet inducing higher levels of postprandial glycemia or insulinemia during puberty may have an unfavorable effect on the body composition in young adulthood.

Methods:

Multivariate regression analysis was performed on 262 participants of the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed Study with at least two 3-day weighed dietary records during puberty (baseline: girls 9–14 years; boys 10–15 years) and anthropometric measurements in young adulthood (18–25 years). A published dietary glycemic index was assigned to each carbohydrate-containing food. Similarly, each food was assigned a food insulin index (insulinemic response to a 1 MJ portion of food relative to 1 MJ of glucose) using 121 values measured at Sydney University.

Results:

Dietary glycemic index or glycemic load during puberty was not related to body composition in young adulthood. In contrast, a higher dietary insulin index and a higher dietary insulin load during puberty were associated with higher levels of percentage of body fat (%BF) in young adulthood, even after adjustment for early life, socioeconomic and nutritional factors; %BF in energy-adjusted tertiles of dietary insulin index were 22.9 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 21.6, 24.1), 24.5 (23.2, 25.7), 24.7 (23.5, 25.9) %, Pfor trend=0.01; %BF in energy-adjusted tertiles of dietary insulin load were 22.8 (95% CI: 21.5, 24.0), 24.5 (23.2, 25.7), 24.8 (23.6, 26.0) %, Pfor trend=0.01. Adjustment for baseline %BF attenuated these relationships (Pfor trend=0.1 and=0.08, respectively). Dietary insulin demand was not related to body mass index.

Conclusion:

This study suggests a prospective adverse influence of dietary insulin demand during puberty on %BF in young adulthood. Postprandial increases in insulinemia rather than increases in glycemia appear to be implicated in an unfavorable development of body composition.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff of the Research Institute of Child Nutrition for carrying out the anthropometric measurements, and for collecting and coding the dietary records. We also thank all the participants of the DONALD Study. The DONALD study is supported by the Ministry of Science and Research of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, and this analysis was partially funded by the World Cancer Research Fund International (grant no. 2010/248).

Author contributions

GJ conducted the statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript; GJ and AEB conceived the research project; GJ and JG assigned all FII values to the 3-day weighed dietary records; all authors made substantial contributions to the interpretation of the results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Child Nutrition, Dortmund, Germany

    G Joslowski, J Goletzke, G Cheng & A E Buyken

  2. Department of Nutritional, Food and Consumer Sciences, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Fulda, Germany

    A L B Günther

  3. The Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition & Exercise and the School of Molecular Biosciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    J Bao & J C Brand-Miller

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  1. G Joslowski
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Correspondence to G Joslowski.

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Joslowski, G., Goletzke, J., Cheng, G. et al. Prospective associations of dietary insulin demand, glycemic index, and glycemic load during puberty with body composition in young adulthood. Int J Obes 36, 1463–1471 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2011.241

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