Purpose: To describe age and time trends in dietary intake of Total Dairy (TD) (g/1000 kcal Total Energy Intake) and types of dairy (weight percent of total dairy intake, w%TD) represented as Low Fat Dairy (LFD), High Sugar Dairy (HSD), Fermented Dairy (FD) and Liquid Dairy (LD) among children and adolescents in Germany. Methods: Overall, 10,333 3-day dietary records kept between 1985 and 2019 by 1275 DONALD participants (3.5–18.5 years; boys: 50.8%) were analyzed using polynomial mixed-effects regression models. Results: TD intake decreased with age (♂: linear trend p < 0.0001; ♀: linear and quadratic trend p < 0.0001), whereas FD (♀: linear, quadratic, cubic trend p ≤ 0.02) increased slightly in girls. HSD (♂: linear, quadratic, cubic trend p ≤ 0.004; ♀: linear, quadratic, cubic trend p ≤ 0.005) and LD (linear, quadratic trend p ≤ 0.0002) decreased with age. In terms of time trends, TD intake decreased in the last three decades, especially since 1995 (quadratic trend for ♂ 0.0007 and ♀ p = 0.004). LFD intake increased until 2010 and decreased thereafter (linear, quadratic, cubic trend p < 0.0001). HSD decreased until 1995, then increased until 2010 and decreased again afterwards (♂: linear, quadratic, cubic trend p ≤ 0.001; ♀: linear, quadratic, cubic trend p ≤ 0.003). While FD intake increased linear (in both ♂ and ♀: p < 0.0001), LD intake decreased (linear, quadratic trend p ≤ 0.03). Conclusion: Our results showed changes in dairy consumption patterns among children and adolescents over the past three decades, demonstrating a decrease in TD intake with age and time, and a shift from liquid to solid dairy products with a simultaneous increase in fermented dairy products, while LFD and HSD fluctuated over time. Further evaluations will examine the health significance of these consumption patterns.

The aim was to analyse the total food costs and the impact of food groups on total food costs among vegetarian, vegan and omnivore children and adolescents in Germany. Based on three-day weighed dietary records of 6–18-year-old children and adolescents of the VeChi Youth Study, the total daily food costs and food group costs (both EUR/day, EUR/1000 kcal) of a vegetarian (n = 145 records), vegan (n = 110) and omnivore (n = 135) diet were calculated. Minimum retail prices of 1000 empirically selected foods reported in the dietary records were linked to individual food intakes. The group differences were analysed using ANCOVA or Kruskal-Wallis tests. Vegans had the highest energy adjusted total food costs at 2.98 EUR/1000 kcal, vegetarians the lowest at 2.52 EUR/1000 kcal. Omnivores also had significantly higher costs than vegetarians with 2.83 EUR/1000 kcal/1000 kcal (p = 0.01), but the total costs did not differ significantly between omnivores and vegans (EUR/d and EUR/1000 kcal). Compared to vegetarians, vegans had significantly higher expenditures (EUR/day) on fruit (p = 0.0003), vegetables (p = 0.006), dairy alternatives (p = 0.0003) and legumes/nuts/seeds (p = 0.0003). Expenditure on starchy foods was significantly higher in the vegetarian or vegan than in the omnivore diet (p = 0.0003). Omnivores spent a quarter of their total food costs on animal source foods (25%), which is equivalent to the sum of food costs for legumes/nuts/seeds, dairy alternatives and meat alternatives in vegans and additionally dairy in vegetarians. The VeChi Youth Study indicated that financial constraints are not necessarily a barrier to switching to a more plant-based diet.

Purpose: To analyse the association between intake of total dairy (TD) and types of dairy [liquid dairy (LD), solid dairy (SD), low-fat dairy (LFD), high-fat dairy (HFD), high sugar dairy (HSD), low-sugar dairy (LSD), not fermented dairy (NFD), as well as fermented dairy (FD)] and long-term changes in body weight status and composition among children and adolescents in Germany. Methods: In total, 9999 3-day dietary records collected between 1985 and 2019 by 1126 participants (3.5–18.5 years; boys: 50.8%) of the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) study were analysed. Polynomial mixed-effects regression models were used to examine whether changes (median follow-up: 9 years) in the intake of TD and dairy types (in 100 g/1000 kcal total energy intake) were associated with changes in body-mass-index-standard-deviation-score (BMI-SDS); fat mass index (FMI); fat-free mass index (FFMI) over time. Results: An individual increase in TD intake was slightly but significantly associated with an increase in BMI-SDS (β = 0.0092; p = 0.0371), FMI (β = 0.022; p = 0.0162), and FFMI (β = 0.0156; p = 0.0417) after adjustment for potential confounder. Analyses for LD (BMI-SDS: β = 0.0139; p = 0.0052; FMI: β = 0.0258; p = 0.0125; FFMI: β = 0.0239; p = 0.0052) and LSD intake (BMI-SDS: β = 0.0132; p = 0.0041, FMI: β = 0.02; p = 0.0316, FFMI: β = 0.0183; p = 0.0189) showed similar results to TD. Both processing method and fat content showed no association with body composition in our analyses. Conclusion: Increases in TD, LD, and LSD intake showed small but significant increases in BMI and concomitant increases in fat mass and lean mass. However, the observed changes were too small to expect biological or physiological meaningful effects. Overall, our results showed that policies to promote dairy intake in childhood are to be welcomed, as no negative effects on body composition are expected, while the intake of important nutrients for growth is ensured. The type of dairy does not seem to matter.

OBJECTIVE:The aim of this analysis was to investigate whether habitual intake of total dairy (TD) or different dairy types (liquid, solid, fermented, not-fermented, low-fat, high-fat, low-sugar and high-sugar dairy) during adolescence is associated with biomarkers of low-grade inflammation as well as risk factors of type 2 diabetes in young adulthood.DESIGN:Multivariable linear regression analyses were used to investigate prospective associations between estimated TD intake as well as intake of different types of dairy and a pro-inflammatory score, based on hsCRP, IL-6, IL-18, leptin and adiponectin, and insulin resistance assessed as HOMA2-IR in an open cohort study.SETTING:Dortmund, GermanyPARTICIPANTS:Data from participants (n=375) of the DOrtmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) study were included, for whom at least two 3-day weighed dietary records during adolescence (median age: 11 years) and one blood sample in young adulthood (>18 years) were available.RESULTS:There was no statistically significant association between TD intake or intake of any dairy type and the pro-inflammatory score (all p>0.05). TD intake as well as each dairy type intake and insulin resistance also showed no association (all p>0.05).CONCLUSIONS:The habitual intake of dairy or individual types of dairy during adolescence does not seem to have a major impact on low-grade systemic inflammation and insulin resistance in the long term. There was no indication regarding a restriction of dairy intake for healthy children and adolescents in terms of diabetes risk reduction.

Background: While circadian eating patterns seem to be involved in the aetiology of obesity in adulthood. Little is known about tracking of such patterns from infancy to pre- and primary school age and their prospective impact on body composition. Methods: Based on data from the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) Study we investigated whether circadian eating patterns in infancy (0–1 years) (1) track to pre- (3–4 years) or primary-school age (6–7 years) and (2) are associated with body composition at primary-school age, using multivariable linear regression models. Circadian patterns were extracted from 3-day weighed dietary records (n = 3,780 records from n = 510 children) and related to body mass index standard deviation scores (BMI-SDS), fat mass index (FMI) and fat free mass index (FFMI). Results: Circadian eating patterns [i.e. eating occasion frequency (n/day), duration of nightly fasting (min), percentage of total energy intake from meals and snacks (%)] except carbohydrate intake after 6 p.m. track from infancy to pre- and primary school age (all p < 0.05). Sensitivity analyses stratified by breastfeeding duration (exclusive breastfed ≥ 4 months, yes/no) showed that the extent of tracking was less pronounced for ≥ 4 months breastfeeding. There were no significant associations between any aspect of circadian eating patterns in infancy and BMI-SDS or body composition during primary-school age (all p > 0.05). Conclusions: Our data suggest that circadian eating pattern in pre- and primary school age are shaped in infancy. However, this tracking of circadian eating pattern in childhood does not appear to have any health relevance with regard to BMI-SDS or body composition.

The impact of dairy foods substitution with plant‐based dairy alternatives (PBDA) on total daily energy and nutrient adequacy as well as greenhouse gas emission (GHGE) and land use (LU) among children and adolescents was examined. Substitution models replacing dairy foods with PBDA on different levels, stratified by PBDA main ingredients as well as fortified and non‐fortified PBDA and resulting total daily energy and nutrient intakes as well as GHGE (kgCO ₂ eq) and LU (m ² × year) per day were calculated using data of the dynamic cohort Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) study (7676 3 day weighed dietary records from 1072 participants, 3–18 years, 52% boys). Intake of energy and most nutrients decreased significantly with increasing substitution levels. Protein intake exceeded dietary reference intakes (DRI) irrespective of substitution level; vitamin B2 and vitamin B12 fell below the DRI from 50% and 75% substitution level onwards, respectively. The decrease in protein intake was lower for soy‐ than for oat‐based PBDA. Only with 100% substitution of dairy foods with fortified PBDA did median intakes of vitamin B ₂ and vitamin B ₁₂ reach the DRI. Calcium intake decreased significantly and was well below the DRI at all substitution levels, whereas iron intake increased and almost reached the DRI at a 100% substitution level. GHGE and LU decreased significantly with the increasing degree of substitution. This study shows an improvement of indicators for environmental sustainability when substituting dairy products with PBDA and underlines the potential of fortification of PBDA to improve nutrient adequacy.