The association between dietary acid load and adiposity measures among children and adolescents

Background Childhood obesity is one of the most important health problems in the present century. It is imperative to plan preventive programs through risk factor identification. The present study was conducted to examine the association between the dietary acid load (DAL) and anthropometric indices in a sample of Iranian children and adolescents. Methods In the current survey, students aged 11-18 years were recruited. To assess usual dietary intake, a validated self-administered 168-item food frequency questionnaire was used. Potential renal acid load (PRAL) and net endogenous acid production (NEAP) was used to estimate DAL. The association between DAL and anthropometric indices was evaluated using logistic regression and reported as an odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Results In total, 456 students (267 girls), with a mean age of 14.44 years participated in the current study. After controlling for potential confounders, the PRAL was positively associated with the risk of obesity (OR = 4.56, 95% CI: 2.26, 9.17), abdominal obesity (OR = 12.64, 95% CI: 3.05, 52.27), and adiposity based on the percent of body fat (PBF) (OR = 3.58, 95% CI: 1.83, 6.99). The NEAP was also significantly associated with the risk of obesity (OR = 5.17, 95% CI: 2.56, 10.43), abdominal obesity (OR = 15.08, 95% CI: 3.35, 67.81), and adiposity based on PBF (OR = 4.53, 95% CI: 2.30, 8.92). Conclusion Our findings suggest that higher adherence to the acidogenic diet, expressed as DAL, was associated with a higher risk of general and central obesity among children and adolescents.