Diet and nutrition are important factors in cancer prevention and treatment because an unbalanced diet increases the risk of cancer onset, while malnutrition negatively impacts the efficacy of cancer treatment

Background: Few longitudinal studies have examined the association between skipping breakfast and overweight/obesity in pre-elementary school children. Furthermore, this association may differ between boys and girls. The main objective of this study was to assess whether skipping breakfast in early childhood was associated with later incidence of overweight/obesity with stratification by gender, using data on children aged 2.5 to 13 years old in The Longitudinal Survey of Newborns in the 21st century.Methods: We examined the associations between skipping breakfast at 2.5 years old and overweight/obesity at 2.5 (n=34,649), 4.5 (n=35,472), 7 (n=31,266), 10 (n=31,211), and 13 (n=28,772) years old. To estimate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of overweight/obesity by each age (2.5, 4.5, 7, 10, 13 years), a multivariate logistic regression was used adjusting for time-invariant and time-varying covariates.Results: At the age of 2.5 years, 11.0% of boys and 12.2% of girls were skipping breakfast. In fully adjusted models, skipping breakfast at 2.5 years old was not significantly associated with overweight/obesity at 2.5 and 4.5 years old, but was significantly associated with overweight/obesity at 7 and 10 years old, in both sexes. Skipping breakfast at 2.5 years old was significantly associated with overweight/obesity at 13 years old in boys (OR=1.38, 95% CI=1.17-1.62), but not in girls (OR=1.21, 95% CI=0.98-1.49).Conclusions: Skipping breakfast in early childhood increased overweight/obesity in later childhood, but there may be gender differences in the association.

Background: Fast eating has been positively associated with visceral fat accumulation in normal-weight individuals according to body mass index (BMI). However, previous studies have not examined energy and nutrients, or adjusted for food intake. We examined the relationship between eating speed and visceral fat accumulation, using waist circumference as an index, in middle-aged participants who were considered to be of standard weight according to BMI, with nutrient intake added as an adjustment factor.Methods: We included 6,548 Japanese participants (3,875 men and 2,673 women) aged 40–74 years with BMI 18.5–25.0 kg/m² who were enrolled in the Yamagata Cohort Study. Participants were divided into “fast,” “normal,” and “slow” eaters according to self-reported eating speed. Nutrient and food intake were evaluated using a food frequency questionnaire, and the difference in intake by eating speed and sex was compared. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between waist circumference obesity (men ≥85 cm, women ≥90 cm, according to Japanese criteria) and eating speed, adjusted for nutrient intake and other lifestyle habits.Results: In men, slow eaters had greater intakes of dietary protein, fat, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), omega-3 PUFA, total dietary fiber, soluble dietary fiber, insoluble dietary fiber, soybean products, fish, green and yellow vegetables, other vegetables, mushrooms, and seaweed in comparison with normal-speed eaters. In men, waist circumference obesity was significantly lower among slow eaters than in the group with normal eating speed. In women, waist circumference obesity was not significantly associated with eating speed and was not also associated with nutrient/food consumption except omega-6 PUFA.Conclusion: Eating slowly was associated with healthy dietary habits. Our results could help prevent waist circumference obesity in men with a BMI between 18.5 and 25.0 kg/m². However, similar findings were not observed in women, suggesting a sex difference.