THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIET QUALITY AND ADIPOSITY IN ADOLESCENT GIRLS

This study examines the relationship between diet quality and total body and regional body fat. Adolescent obesity is becoming a major public challenge in the United States. Obesity is a multifactorial disease that, if developed in early years of life, can track into later years. Persistent obesity is associated with an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. Diet quality and patterns seen in adolescence are important to understand since they can promote fat gain and development of obesity. Anthropometric measures were obtained using standard protocols and body composition measures were obtained using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The validated Youth Healthy Eating Index (YHEI) was used to assess diet quality via 14 different components. Multiple linear regressions suggested that the components of the YHEI of fried foods, margarine and butter use, snack foods and dairy were all significantly and directly related to the body composition measures of total percent body fat, android percent fat and BMI. Total YHEI score was significantly and inversely related to the body composition measures. In conclusion, this study suggests that diet quality is a good predictor of body composition, including regional and total adiposity