J Nutr

Childhood weight affects adult morbidity and mortality.

Dietz WH.
New England Medical Center, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Few studies have examined the long-term effects of childhood obesity on adult disease. Nonetheless, obesity present in childhood or adolescence seems to increase the likelihood of adult morbidity and mortality. In men who were obese during adolescence, all-cause mortality and mortality from cardiovascular disease and colon cancer were increased. In both men and women obese during adolescence, rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes were increased. Among women but not men obese during adolescence, obesity has a variety of adverse psychosocial consequences. These include completion of fewer years of education, higher rates of poverty, and lower rates of marriage and household income. These effects seem related both to the persistence of obesity and to the effects of childhood or adolescent obesity on the quantity and location of body fat deposition. Approximately 50% of obese adolescents with a body mass index at or above the 95th percentile become obese adults. Furthermore, the risk factors for adult disease that are associated with obesity in children and adolescents persist into adulthood or increase in prevalence if weight gain occurs. Although both total body fat and regional fat deposition could account for the association of childhood or adolescent obesity with adult disease, no studies to date have examined cardiovascular risk factors and related them to visceral fat, controlled for total body fat.

A prospective study of dietary fiber types and symptomatic diverticular disease in men.

Year 1998
Aldoori WH. Giovannucci EL. Rockett HR. Sampson L. Rimm EB. Willett WC.
Department of Nutrition, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
To examine prospectively dietary fiber calculated from food composition values based on analytic techniques and specific dietary fiber types in relation to risk of diverticular disease, we analyzed data from a prospective cohort of 43,881 U.S. male health professionals 40-75 y of age at base line; subjects were free of diagnosed diverticular disease, colon or rectal polyps, ulcerative colitis and cancer. The insoluble component of fiber was inversely associated with risk of diverticular disease relative risk (RR) = 0. 63, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.44-0.91, P for trend = 0.02, and this association was particularly strong for cellulose (RR = 0.52, 95% CI, 0.36-0.75, P for trend = 0.002). The association between diverticular disease and total dietary fiber intake calculated from the AOACstandards method was not appreciably different from results using the Southgate or Englyst method [for AOAC method, RR = 0.60, 95% CI, 0.41-0.87; for Southgate method, RR = 0.61, 95% CI, 0.42-0. 88; for Englyst method, RR = 0.60, 95% CI, 0.42-0.87, for the highest quintiles]. Our findings provide evidence for the hypothesis that a diet high in dietary fiber decreases the risk of diverticular disease, and this result was not sensitive to the use of different analytic techniques to define dietary fiber. Our findings suggest that the insoluble component of fiber was significantly associated with a decreased risk of diverticular disease, and this inverse association was particularly strong for cellulose.