Recorded presentation

Patricia B Crawford, DrPH, RD¹, Lorrene Davis Ritchie, PhD, RD², Dana E. Gerstein, MPH, RD³, Gail M. Woodward-Lopez, MPH, RD², and Susan L. Ivey, MD, MHSA⁴. (1) Department of Nutritional Sciences and Center for Weight and Health, University of California, Berkeley, 9 Morgan Hall, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3104, 510-642-5572, crawford@socrates.berkeley.edu, (2) Center for Weight and Health, University of California, Berkeley, 9 Morgan Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3104, (3) Center for Weight and Health, Unversity of California, Berkeley, 3 Giannini Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3100, (4) Center for Family and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 140 Warren Hall, UC-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360

PURPOSE: While countless studies have examined the relationship between intake of individual dietary factors and obesity risk, relatively few have evaluated overall dietary patterns. Examination of dietary patterns is appealing in that it mimics the way in which people eat, consuming meals and snacks consisting of a variety of foods, rather than isolated nutrients or foods. A comprehensive review of the scientific literature was undertaken to examine the role of dietary patterns as a determinant of obesity. Other dietary factors examined individually as part of the same review are also presented together and suggest a dietary pattern that would be likely to prevent obesity. METHODS: Four lines of evidence were examined with an emphasis on observational studies. Both factor and cluster analyses were used in the literature to categorize dietary patterns. FINDINGS: The literature examining the relationship between dietary patterns and obesity suffers from several limitations notably: focus on older Caucasian adults; lack of longitudinal and nationally representative studies; reliance on self-reported heights and weights; lack of consistent methodology in identifying and establishing food groups; and research designs not explicitly intended to assess the relationship between dietary patterns and adiposity. Therefore based on the literature currently available, it cannot be definitively concluded that specific dietary patterns are determinants of obesity. However the review of the literature that examined dietary factors individually reveals several consistencies and suggests a pattern of intake that would be protective against positive energy balance and hence obesity. Implications of these findings for environmental changes are presented.

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