Associations of Fruit and Vegetable Intake with Metabolic Health Status in Overweight and Obese Youth.

Introduction: The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake with metabolic health status among overweight and obese Iranian youth.

Methods: In total, 203 obese and overweight youth including 101 boys and 102 girls, 12-18 years, were randomly recruited through a multistage cluster sampling approach in this study. A validated Persian format of food frequency questionnaire was used to estimate participants' usual food intake. Adolescents were categorized in accordance with the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria as well as IDF plus insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) definition into metabolically healthy obese and metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO).

Results: Based on IDF criteria, youth in the third tertile of vegetable and the combination of fruit and vegetable intake had 66% (odds ratio = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.12-0.95) and 73% (odds ratio = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.09-0.81) lower odds of MUO compared to those in the first tertile, in the fully-adjusted model. According to IDF plus HOMA-IR definition, inverse associations were also found between vegetable (odds ratio = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.12-1.02) and the combination of fruit and vegetable (odds ratio = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.08-0.79) intake with MUO phenotype. Stratified analysis indicated inverse associations between intake of vegetables and the combination of fruits and vegetables with MUO phenotype (based on IDF definition) in overweight, but not obese subjects.

Conclusion: The current study demonstrated that greater consumption of vegetables as well as the combination of fruits and vegetables was related to a lower risk of MUO phenotype, particularly in overweight youth.