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Dietary lignan intake and body fat distribution in U.S. adolescents

Pediatric Research (2025)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Body fat distribution patterns impact adolescent health, yet research on dietary lignans’ influence remains limited. This study investigated their association among U.S. adolescents.

Methods

Data from 1579 adolescents (NHANES 2003–2006) were analyzed. Urinary enterolactone and enterodiol concentrations measured dietary lignan intake. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry assessed body fat distribution. Survey-weighted linear regression models with progressive adjustment were employed, and restricted cubic spline analyses evaluated potential non-linear relationships.

Results

Urinary enterolactone levels were significantly inversely associated with android-to-gynoid fat ratio (fully adjusted model: β = −0.007, 95% CI: −0.012, −0.002, P = 0.008), indicating a significant negative relationship between enterolactone and android-to-gynoid fat ratio, with restricted cubic spline analysis confirming significant overall association (P for overall = 0.001, demonstrating the statistical significance of the entire relationship) and linear relationship (P for nonlinear = 0.064, indicating the relationship does not significantly deviate from linearity). Further analysis showed that enterodiol was positively associated with gynoid fat ratio (β = 0.360, 95% CI: 0.043, 0.677, P = 0.028), suggesting enterodiol exposure may favor gynoid fat distribution.

Conclusion

Dietary lignan intake significantly associates with more favorable body fat distribution patterns among U.S. adolescents, suggesting that increasing dietary lignan intake may be a potential strategy for improving adolescent body composition.

Impact

  • Dietary lignan intake, measured by urinary biomarkers, is significantly associated with favorable body fat distribution patterns in U.S. adolescents.

  • This study highlights the role of dietary lignans, an underexplored dietary component, in influencing body fat distribution during adolescence, expanding on prior research focused on adults.

  • These findings suggest dietary lignans as a potential nutritional strategy to improve body fat distribution in adolescents, offering insights for public health interventions targeting metabolic health in youth.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2: RCS analysis of the association between urinary enterolignans and ATOG.

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Data availability

The datasets analysed during the current study are available in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) repository, at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Province-level special subsidy funds for the finance department in Fujian Province (No: Fujian Finance Index (2023) 834).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Xuejie Gao, Fengxiu Chen.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Digestive & Nutrition, Fujian Children’s Hospital (Fujian Branch of Shanghai Children’s Medical Center), College of Clinical Medicine for Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pediatrics, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China

    Xuejie Gao, Fengxiu Chen, Shiyi Xu, Weijie Ou, Hong Ye & Yuyun Chen

  2. Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Fuzhou, Fujian, China

    Xuejie Gao, Fengxiu Chen & Hong Ye

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  1. Xuejie Gao
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Contributions

X.G., F.C., and H.Y. contributed to conception and design, and drafted the article; W.O., S.X., and Y.C. analyzed the data and revised the article. All authors approved the final version to be published.

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Correspondence to Hong Ye or Yuyun Chen.

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Gao, X., Chen, F., Xu, S. et al. Dietary lignan intake and body fat distribution in U.S. adolescents. Pediatr Res (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-025-04363-9

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