Dietary fat intake of Japanese male children and its associated factors: Results of the 1995 National Nutrition Survey in Japan

Aim: To clarify the factors associated with reported dietary fat intake by Japanese male children. Methods: This study is based on the data of a nationally representative cross-sectional study in Japan. Three hundred and seventy-seven male children (age, 6 - 11 years) whose households were sampled in the 1995 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions of the People on Health and Welfare, and the 1995 National Nutrition Survey and whose parents were identified through record linkage between the 2 survey data sets were enrolled. Results: The final dataset in this study consisted of 377 boys with 329 of their parents. Fifty-two boys were found to be overweight (13.8%). The reported dietary fat intake was higher among the overweight boys than among the non-overweight boys. Maternal obesity was significantly associated with obesity in male children. Boys who frequently consumed foods from the “fats and lipids” group and the “meat” groups, and children from nuclear families rather than 3- generation families reported high dietary fat intake. In addition, parental fat intake was also significantly associated with fat intake of male children. Conclusions: Child and parental dietary habits along with the household status should be considered when implementing nutritional education programmes to control dietary fat intake and reduce the obesity risks of male children.

The influence of adiponectin G276T gene polymorphism on changes in total and high molecular weight adiponectin levels by exercise training

Adiponectin is an adipocyte-secreted hormone and regulates the metabolism of lipid and glucose. We examined the influence of adiponectin G276T gene polymorphism on changes in total or high molecular weight adiponectin levels by exercise training. A randomized parallel-design study (n = 53;40 women and 13 men;age range, 32 - 65 years) was conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to the exercise (n = 26) or control (n = 27) group and received exercise training for 70 min 2 times per week for 12 weeks and exercise advice at the baseline, respectively. Blood sample were obtained before and after the intervention. The primary outcomes were changes in total adiponectin and high molecular weight adiponectin levels. At the baseline, the participants with and without 276G allele did not differ with the total and high molecular weight adiponectin levels in the entire study population. No significant difference in the change in the total and high molecular weight adiponectin levels between the subjects with the G276G genotype and 276T allele carriers were found. This study provides evidence that the G276T polymorphism of the adiponectin gene is not associated with the magnitude of the effect of twice-weekly exercise training on the total and high molecular weight adiponectin levels.