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Lifetime dietary change and its relation to increase in weight in Spanish women
1Unidad de Antropología, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. pilar.montero@uam.es
Introduction:
Changes in dietary patterns and a decrease in physical activity have occurred in Western countries. These are factors in the variation in body composition observed in populations, characterized by a progressive accumulation of fat with age and a consequent increase in the risk of suffering from common chronic illnesses such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Objective:
To investigate weight gain throughout the life-cycle and its relation to modifications in dietary patterns, analyzing the causes of these modifications and their implications for patterns of adult overweight and obesity.
Design:
Cross-sectional sample of Spanish women from a socio-economically disadvantaged class.
Subjects:
1037 healthy perimenopausal women (age: 45-65 y).
Measurements:
Juvenile body mass index (BMI), current BMI, food frequency questionnaire, retrospective food habits.
Results And Conclusions:
Of these women, 48.8% had changed their dietary habits during their lifetime. A change in diet due to migration or marriage occurred at approximately 20 years of age and was characterized by an increased frequency of consumption of foods rich in protein and complex carbohydrates, while a change due to illness occurred at around 50 years of age and was characterized by a decrease in the consumption of these types of food. The change in dietary behavior due to migration was associated with weight gain. Weight gain was also inversely associated with BMI during youth; women who in their youth had a BMI<18.5 kg/m2 gained an average of 21.4 kg, compared with those with a BMI>27 kg/m2 in their youth, who gained an average of 5.4 kg. International Journal of Obesity (2000)24, 14-19