The role of dietary calcium and other nutrients in moderating body fat in preschool children

OBJECTIVE: To assess preschool children's food consumption (24 - 60 months) and relate these findings to body composition at 70 +/-2 months. DESIGN: A longitudinal study of children's dietary intakes for selected nutrients and servings of dairy products. SUBJECTS: Fifty-three white children participating in a longitudinal study (2-96 months) of children's food practices and growth. MEASUREMENTS: Using in-home interviews and trained interviewers, 18 days of dietary data and measured height and weight of each child at 6 month intervals were collected. Body composition was determined by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS: Dietary fat was 30-33% of energy with saturated and monounsaturated fat intakes > 10% and polyunsaturated < 10%. Adjusting for body mass index (BMI), GLM models to predict percent body fat (%BF) or grams of total fat (gTF) with mean longitudinal calcium intake (%BF: R-2 = 0.51, F = 7.88, P < 0.0001; gTF: R-2 = 0.51, F = 9.84, P = 0.0001) or total servings of dairy products (%BF: R-2 = 0.47, F = 6.93, P < 0.0001; gTF: R-2 = 0.47, F = 8.31, P < 0.0001) as independent variables gave significant results. Higher mean longitudinal calcium (mg/day) intakes and more servings/day of dairy products were associated with lower body fat. Males had significantly less body fat (P = 0.01) than females. CONCLUSIONS: Higher longitudinal intakes of calcium, monounsaturated fat, and servings of dairy products were associated with lower body fat.