Metabolomics signatures of sweetened beverages and added sugar are related to anthropometric measures of adiposity in young individuals: results from a cohort study.

BACKGROUND

The associations of sweetened beverages (SBs) and added sugar (AS) intake with adiposity are still debated. Metabolomics could provide insights into the mechanisms linking their intake to adiposity.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed (1) to identify metabolomics biomarkers of intake of low and no-calorie sweetened beverages (LNCSB), sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), and AS, and (2) to investigate their associations with body mass index, body fat percentage, and waist circumference.

METHODS

We analyzed three datasets from the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) cohort study, of children who provided two urine samples (n = 297), adolescents who provided a single urine sample (n = 339), and young adults who provided a single plasma sample (n = 195). Urine and plasma were analyzed by untargeted metabolomics. Dietary intakes were assessed using 3-day weighed dietary records. The random forest, partial least squares, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator were jointly employed for metabolite selection. We examined associations of intakes with metabolites and anthropometric measures using linear and mixed-effects regression.

RESULTS

In adolescents, LNCSB were positively associated with acesulfame, β = 0.0012, 95% confidence interval, CI (0.0006, 0.0019) and saccharin β = 0.0009, 95% CI (0.0002, 0.0015). In children, the association was observed with saccharin β = 0.0016, 95% CI (0.0005, 0.0027). In urine and plasma, SSB were positively associated with 1-methylxanthine, β = 0.0005, 95% CI (0.0003, 0.0008), β = 0.0010, 95% CI (0.0004, 0.0015) and 5-acetylamino-6-amino-3-methyluracil, β = 0.0005, 95% CI (0.0002, 0.0008), β = 0.0009, 95% CI (0.0003, 0.0014), respectively. AS was associated with urinary sucrose, β = 0.0095, 95% CI (0.0069, 0.0121) in adolescents. Some of the food-related metabolic profiles were also associated with adiposity measures.

CONCLUSIONS

We identified SBs- and AS-related metabolites, which may be important for understanding the interplay between these intakes and adiposity in young individuals.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no competing interest.