Appetitive Traits and Food Preferences in adolescents with transient loss of consciousness
Introduction
A healthy and balanced diet is central to optimal health in both the short and long term. Food preferences are important drivers of actual food choice, determining micro- and macronutrient intakes. Poor dietary quality increases the risk of a lot of diseases at childhood.
Blood pressure and pulse rate can be influenced by what we consume. These changes can be quite dramatic in a patient with transient loss of consciousness. This can work to the advantage or disadvantage of the patient. It has long been recognized that people who are dehydrated are prone to fainting. When fluid intake is insufficient, or fluid loss is excessive, the volume of blood circulating in blood vessels becomes reduced and blood pressure falls.
Understanding the etiology of food preferences and appetitive traits therefore has important implications for policy makers and clinicians.
Keywords
Transient loss of consciousness in adolescents, appetitive traits, food preference, Adult Eating Behaviour Questionnaire, Food Preference Questionnaire for Adolescents and Adults.
Research question
So if “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT” the following questions arise:
What are peculiarities of appetitive traits in adolescents with transient loss of consciousness?
What is character of food preferences in adolescents with transient loss of consciousness in comparison with healthy teenagers?
Gender structure of adolescents involved in the study
Main method
We studied 39 adolescents ages 13 to 17 years with a history of transient loss of consciousness (the main group). The control group consisted of 24 healthy volunteers. There was no difference between the main and control groups in terms of age or gender distribution. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Ivan Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University (Ukraine), and all participants gave their written informed consent before participation.
All adolescents completed the Adult Eating Behaviour Questionnaire. It helped to measure eight appetitive traits: Enjoyment of Food, Emotional Over-Eating, Emotional Under-Eating, Food Fussiness, Food Responsiveness, Slowness in Eating, Hunger, and Satiety Responsiveness. Food preference data was measured with Food Preference Questionnaire for Adolescents and Adults for vegetables, fruit, meat or fish, dairy, snacks, and starchy food.
The main and control groups were compared using the chi-square test for categorical variables and the Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables.
Appetitive traits in adolescents with a history of transient loss of consciousness and healthy adolescents
Main method
It was found that adolescents with transient loss of consciousness showed decreased values of scales of Enjoyment of Food (3,26±0,14; 4,00±0,11; p=0,002) and Food Responsiveness (2,24±0,12; 2,61±0,13; p=0,048) in comparing with healthy ones. They also had an increase Satiety Responsiveness (3,26±0,13; 2,33±0,13; p=0,013). There were no differences in scales of Emotional Over-Eating, Emotional Under-Eating, Food Fussiness, Slowness in Eating, and Hunger between respondents of main and control groups (p>o,o5).
Adolescents with transient loss of consciousness had less food preferences in vegetables: spinach, carrots, green beans, cucumbers, celery, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, peas, sweet corn, broccoli, salad, red peppers, raw tomatoes, avocados, potatoes, baked beans, beetroot (3,19±0,09; 3,66±0,09; p=0,005), and starches food: bread, bran cereal, porridge, rice, wheat cereal, rice or corn cereal (3,39±0,11; 3,78±0,11; p=0,033). However they didn't have any food preferences in fruits, meat or fish, dairy, and snacks while in comparison with healthy adolescents.
Food Preference in adolescents with a history of transient loss of consciousness and healthy adolescents
Main conclusion
The obtained results are important for deepening understanding of mechanisms of disease development, as well as making recommendations for adolescents to better manage their food intake and to help avoiding and alleviating the symptoms of transient loss of consciousness development. It is extremely important to recommend a balanced diet for all adolescents with transient loss of consciousness with increasing consumption to vegetables and starchy food in daily ration.
References
- Smith, A. D., Fildes, A., Cooke, L., Herle, M., Shakeshaft, N., Plomin, R., & Llewellyn, C. (2016). Genetic and environmental influences on food preferences in adolescence. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 104(2), 446–453. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.116.133983
- Guzek D., Skolmowska, D., & Głąbska, D. (2020). Appetitive Traits in a Population-Based Study of Polish Adolescents within the PLACE-19 Study: Validation of the Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Nutrients, 12(12), 3889. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12123889
- Romero-Velarde, E., Curiel-Curiel, C. P., Hunot-Alexander, C., Garibay, E. V., Mariscal-Rizo, A., Casillas-Toral, E., Smith, A., & Llewellyn, C. (2020). Association of Appetitive Traits of Schoolchildren with Obesity and Those of Their Mothers. Current Developments in Nutrition, 4(Suppl 2), 1678. https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzaa063_076
Author
Tetiana Kovalchuk, M.D., Ph.D. Assoc. Professor, Docent Department of Pediatrics # 2, Ivan Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine Ternopil, UKRAINE