Relationship between dietary flavonoid intake and obesity among Korean adults

Abstract

Obesity is one of the major causes of chronic diseases and its prevalence has increased over the last few decades. Flavonoids possess preventive activities against the development of chronic diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between dietary flavonoid intake and the prevalence of obesity, based on data from the Korean Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008–2011. This cross-sectional study included 16,604 Korean adults (6,719 men and 9,885 women) who completed a health interview, a nutrition survey, and a health examination. The general characteristics and dietary intakes of the participants were obtained using a standardized questionnaire and a 24-h recall, respectively. Three anthropometric indices were used to assess obesity: body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and percent body fat (%BF). After adjusting for covariates, a higher total flavonoid intake was associated with a lower prevalence of obesity, as determined by %BF (highest vs. lowest tertile

odds ratio [OR]: 0.81, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.68–0.96, P for trend = 0.0105), and abdominal obesity as determined by WC (highest vs. lowest tertile

OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.53–0.85, P for trend = 0.0031), in women but not in men. In contrast, there was no association between total dietary flavonoid intake and obesity as determined by BMI in either men or women. Our results suggest that an increased intake of dietary flavonoid may decrease the risk of obesity in Korean adults.