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Association between Nutritional Status, Obesity and Puberty Timing

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition and Obesity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 October 2023) | Viewed by 2537

Special Issue Editor

1. Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
2. Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
3. School of Nutrition and Health Sciences, College of Nutrition, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
4. Graduate Institute of Metabolism and Obesity Sciences, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
Interests: childhood obesity; childhood atopic diseases; pubertal development; nutrition

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the past two decades, a secular trend of early puberty has been reported globally. Early puberty, such as precocious puberty (PP) in extreme cases, presents as premature activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) axis, and children experience their sexual maturation before the age of 9 in boys or 8 in girls. To our knowledge, the exact biological pathway of early puberty above the hypothalamus level has not been clearly delineated. Instead, it is supposed to be a multifactorial disorder caused by a complex interaction between genetic, nutritional, environmental, and socio-economic factors. Pubertal timing is sensitive to nutritional regulation. Caloric over-consumption links to the accumulation of body fat, which elevates leptin levels, a signal to the brain to trigger the onset of puberty. Untreated early puberty may result in the paradox of tall stature in childhood but short final adult height, owing to the premature closure of epiphyseal growth plates in long bones; or, it may lead to subsequent cardiometabolic adverse outcomes, including hyperinsulinemia, obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality.

In this Special Issue, we will cover clinical, epidemiological, and experimental research investigating the interrelationships between nutritional status, obesity, and puberty timing. We will focus on macro-, micro-, food intake, and dietary patterns causing changes in adiposity growth or pubertal timing. Studies using a multi-omics approach (genomics, metabolomics, microbiomics) are specifically welcomed. In the multi-omics era, it is necessary to examine individual variation in response to a specific diet, as well as how diet influences metabolic regulation in children with early puberty, in order to achieve personalized dietary recommendations.

Dr. Yang-Ching Chen
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nutrient intake
  • childhood obesity
  • early puberty
  • sexual maturation
  • puberty timing
  • early menarche
  • early voice breaking

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 614 KiB  
Article
Effects of Nonnutritive Sweeteners on Body Composition Changes during Pubertal Growth
by Yu-Hsin Chien, Chia-Yuan Lin, Shih-Yuan Hsu, Yue-Hwa Chen, Hung-Tsung Wu, Shiu-Wen Huang and Yang-Ching Chen
Nutrients 2023, 15(10), 2319; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15102319 - 15 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2288
Abstract
The effects of consuming specific types of nonnutritive sweeteners (NNSs) on adiposity changes in children have remained inconsistent. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of the intake of different kinds of NNSs on long-term adiposity changes during pubertal growth. Furthermore, [...] Read more.
The effects of consuming specific types of nonnutritive sweeteners (NNSs) on adiposity changes in children have remained inconsistent. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of the intake of different kinds of NNSs on long-term adiposity changes during pubertal growth. Furthermore, we examined the above relationships among different sexes, pubertal stages, and levels of obesity. A total of 1893 6–15-year-old adults were recruited and followed-up every 3 months. The NNS-FFQ (Food Frequency Questionnaire) was conducted and urine samples were collected to investigate the effects of the selected sweeteners, which included acesulfame potassium, aspartame, sucralose, glycyrrhizin, steviol glycosides, and sorbitol. Multivariate linear mixed-effects models were used to examine the relationship between NNS intake and body composition. The consumption of aspartame, sucralose, glycyrrhizin, stevioside, and sorbitol was associated with decreased fat mass and increased fat-free mass. In the highest tertile group, the effects of NNS consumption on fat mass corresponded to values of −1.21 (95% CI: −2.04 to −0.38) for aspartame, −0.62 (95% CI: −1.42 to 0.19) for sucralose, −1.26 (95% CI: −2.05 to −0.47) for glycyrrhizin, −0.90 (95% CI: −2.28 to 0.48) for stevioside, and −0.87 (95% CI: −1.67 to −0.08) for sorbitol, while the effects on fat-free mass corresponded to values of 1.20 (95% CI: 0.36 to −0.38) for aspartame, 0.62 (95% CI: −0.19 to 1.43) for sucralose, 1.27 (95% CI: 0.48 to 2.06) for glycyrrhizin, 0.85 (95% CI: −0.53 to 2.23) for stevioside, and 0.87 (95% CI: 0.08 to 1.67) for sorbitol. Particularly, aspartame and sorbitol revealed a dose-responsiveness effect. The above finding was more prominent among girls than boys. Moreover, fat mass was significantly reduced in normal-weight children who consumed a moderate amount of aspartame and a large amount of glycyrrhizin and sorbitol compared with obese children. In conclusion, the NNS-specific and sex-specific effects of long-term NNS consumption revealed associations of decreasing fat mass and increasing fat-free mass for children undergoing pubertal growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Association between Nutritional Status, Obesity and Puberty Timing)
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