A low fructose diet in the treatment of pediatric obesity: A pilot study.

Pediatr Int. 2010 Sep 11. doi: 10.1111/j.1442-200X.2010.03248.x. [Epub ahead of print]




A low fructose diet in the treatment of pediatric obesity: A pilot study.

Maier IB, Stricker L, Ozel Y, Wagnerberger S, Bischoff SC, Bergheim I.



Dept. of Nutritional Medicine (180a), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.



Abstract

Background: Over the last three decades the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased dramatically among children and adolescents world-wide. As the results of animal and human studies suggest that a diet rich in fructose may be a risk factor for the development of overweight the aim of the pilot study was to evaluate if a dietary counseling aiming to a moderate reduction of dietary fructose intake (-50% in comparison to intake at baseline) has a positive effect on body mass index (BMI) of overweight and obese children. Methods: Fifteen overweight or obese children aged 5-8 years were included into the three month dietary intervention study. At baseline and after 4 and 8 weeks children and their parents were trained to reduce fructose in the children's diet. Anthropometric parameters for calculating BMI and BMI standard deviation scores (BMI-SDS) as well as nutritional intake were assessed at baseline, after the 12-week intervention and after 12 week of follow-up. Results: After the 12-week intervention children had significantly reduced their total energy, fructose, sucrose and glucose intake. BMI and BMI-SDS were significantly reduced by 0.68 kg/m(2 ) and 0.21, respectively at the end of the intervention. At follow-up the BMI-SDS was significantly lower in comparison to baseline whereas the BMI was only decreased by trend (p = 0.08). Conclusions: The results of our pilot study indicate that a counseling aiming towards a moderate reduction of dietary fructose and/ or general sugar intake may have a positive effect on BMI in overweight and obese children.