Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association of daily branch chained amino acid intake with the risks of obesity and insulin resistance in children. METHODS: 996 children of mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus were included. Daily BCAA intake was calculated using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Logistic regression models were used to obtain the odd ratios (ORs) (95% confidence intervals [CI]) of childhood obesity and insulin resistance associated with different levels of daily BCAA intake. RESULTS: The multivariable-adjusted ORs across quartiles of daily BCAA intake were 1.00, 2.19, 2.06 and 2.81 (P for trend < 0.001) for overweight, and 1.00, 1.39, 1.52, and 1.71 for insulin resistance (P for trend = 0.018), respectively. When BCAA intake was examined as a continuous variable, multivariable-adjusted ORs for each 1 standard deviation increase in BCAA intake were 1.37 (95% CI 1.16–1.62) for overweight, and 1.19 (95% CI 1.02–1.38) for insulin resistance. There were positive associations of daily leucine, isoleucine and valine intakes with the risks of overweight and insulin resistance. CONCLUSIONS: Daily intake of BCAA was positively associated with the risks of overweight and insulin resistance in children. Restriction in nutrition ingredient BCAA may be important to prevent childhood obesity and insulin resistance. FUNDING SOURCES: This study was supported by the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD)/Chinese Diabetes Society (CDS)/Lilly Programme for Collaborative Research between China and Europe. Dr. Hu was partly supported by the grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK100790) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U54GM104940) of the National Institutes of Health.