Are Plant-Based Diets Linked to Body Composition in Young Children?


Are Plant-Based Diets Linked to Body Composition in Young Children?

This study examined whether how plant-based a young child’s diet is relates to their body composition.

What We Did and Why We Did It

Researchers studied 287 children aged 1.5 to 6 years from 211 families in the Guelph Family Health Study. Using a detailed 24-hour diet record, they scored how plant-based each child’s diet was, looking at:

  • Healthy plant foods, like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains
  • Less healthy plant foods, like sugary foods and refined grains

They then compared these scores with careful measurements of the children’s body composition, including body fat. In adults, more plant-based diets have been linked to lower body fat, but much less is known about young children, so researchers wanted to see whether the same was true early in life.

 

What We Found

What We Can Learn From This

There were no links between how plant-based a child’s diet was and any measure of their body composition. This was true for overall plant-based eating as well as for healthy and less healthy plant foods.

In this group of young children, a more plant-based diet was not related to body fat, at least in the short term. This does not mean plant foods are not important, since they offer many other benefits, but longer studies are needed to understand these links over time.

Limitations

This was a snapshot taken at one point in time, so it cannot show cause and effect. Most participating families were White and from higher-income households, so the findings may not apply to all families.

 

Read the full article published Here.

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