Sugary beverage and food consumption, and leukocyte telomere length maintenance in pregnant women

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition 2016-09, Vol.70 (9), p.1086-1088
• Main Authors: Leung, C W, Laraia, B A, Coleman-Phox, K, Bush, N R, Lin, J, Blackburn, E H, Adler, N E, Epel, E S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 692/499; 692/53; Adolescent; Adult; Beverages; Body weight; Carbohydrate metabolism; Clinical Nutrition; Confidence intervals; Consumption; Cross-sectional studies; Diet; Dietary intake; Dietary Sugars - adverse effects; Energy Intake; Epidemiology; Ethnicity; Exercise; Feeding Behavior; Female; Food; Food and nutrition; Food consumption; Food intake; Genetic aspects; Health aspects; Humans; Internal Medicine; Leukocytes; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Middle Aged; Mindfulness; Nutrition research; Obesity - complications; Observations; Overweight; Physiological aspects; Pilot projects; Postpartum; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications; Pregnant women; Public Health; Regression analysis; short-communication; Standard scores; Sugar; Telomere - drug effects; Telomere Homeostasis; Telomere Shortening; Telomeres; White blood cells; Womens health; Yeast; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/ejcn.2016.93

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) has been inversely associated with sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption in cross-sectional studies, but no studies have examined whether dietary intake influences LTL over time. This study examined longitudinal associations between sugary foods and beverages and LTL. Participants were 65 overweight and obese pregnant women, aged 18–45 years, from a mindfulness intervention study conducted from early pregnancy (⩽16 weeks gestation) and followed through 9 months postpartum. During pregnancy and postpartum, dietary intake was measured with 24-h diet recalls, and LTL was assessed using quantitative PCR. Adjusting for sociodemographic and health characteristics, decreased SSB consumption from baseline to 9 months postpartum was associated with greater concurrent LTL lengthening ( β =−0.102, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.192, −0.013). No associations between sugary foods and LTL were found in either period. The finding that reduced SSB consumption is associated with increased LTL warrants investigation in large cohort studies.