Dietary Intake and Its Relationship to Different Body Mass Index Categories: A Population-Based Study

Obesity is a major public health problem because of its associated diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. We aimed to explore the relationship between dietary macronutrients and adiposity in a cohort study, representative of the city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran.

A cross-sectional study.

The population sample (9847) derived from Mashhad stroke and heart atherosclerotic disorders (MASHAD: 2010-2020) and was obtained using a stratified-cluster method. The subjects were separated into 4 groups by body mass index status: normal weight, underweight, overweight and obese individuals. Individuals with mean age of 48.33 ±8.26 yr were recruited and anthropometric and biochemical factors were measured in all the subjects. Individual dietary intakes were assessed using 24-h dietary recall Dietplan6. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted before and after adjustment for age, gender and energy intake.

Obese individuals were significantly less physically active. They had higher levels of serum fasted lipid profile, hs-CRP, uric acid, and glucose, and blood pressures compared to normal weight individuals (P=0.001). There was a significant difference in the dietary intakes of the groups categorized by obese before adjustment for energy intake in the obese compared to the normal weight group. These differences remained statistically significant for Trans fatty acid (P=0.033), lactose (P=0.009), fructose (P=0.025), glucose (P=0.017), sucrose (P=0.021) and maltose (P=0.015) after adjustment for energy intake.

Our findings demonstrate a significant association between dietary Trans fatty acid and total sugar intake with adiposity in a representative population sample from northeastern Iran.