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The role of dietary fatty acids for early human adipose tissue growth

Hans Hauner1, Stefanie Brunner, Ulrike Amann-Gassner

  • 1Else Kröner-Fresenius-Center for Nutritional Medicine, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany. hans.hauner@tum.de

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
|June 21, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Modifying dietary fat intake during pregnancy and lactation shows limited success in preventing childhood obesity. More research is needed to determine if early-life dietary interventions can reduce obesity risk.

Area of Science:

  • Nutrition Science
  • Pediatric Health
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Childhood obesity is a growing global epidemic with limited successful interventions.
  • Perinatal factors, including maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain, and diet, significantly influence offspring obesity risk.
  • Early-life dietary fat composition is a potential target for primary prevention of childhood obesity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the potential of modulating dietary fat intake and composition during pregnancy and lactation for childhood obesity prevention.
  • To investigate the antiobesity effects of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs) supplementation.
  • To assess the current evidence for early-life dietary interventions in preventing human obesity.

Main Methods:

  • Review of retrospective human randomized controlled trials involving fish-oil interventions during pregnancy and lactation.
  • Analysis of a prospective human intervention study modifying the n-6:n-3 LC-PUFA ratio.
  • Evaluation of offspring BMI and adipose tissue growth as outcome measures.

Main Results:

  • Retrospective studies on fish-oil supplementation during pregnancy and lactation yielded inconsistent results regarding offspring BMI and obesity.
  • A prospective study altering the n-6:n-3 LC-PUFA ratio did not demonstrate an effect on infant adipose tissue growth up to one year of age.
  • Current evidence is insufficient to support dietary fat composition modification in early life as a primary strategy for preventing childhood obesity.

Conclusions:

  • There is currently limited evidence supporting the efficacy of modifying dietary fat composition during pregnancy and lactation for preventing childhood obesity in humans.
  • Further research is essential to explore the potential of early-life dietary interventions in mitigating obesity risk.
  • Investigating specific dietary components and their impact on offspring's long-term metabolic health requires continued investigation.

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