Background: We aimed at analysing the association between dietary fibre intake during childhood and cardiovascular health markers.
Methods: We used observational longitudinal analysis and recorded diet using 3-day diaries at the ages of 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 years in children from the EU Childhood Obesity Project Trial. At the age of 8, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) and biochemical analyses (lipoproteins, triglycerides and homeostasis model for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR)) were evaluated. Those parameters were combined into a cardiometabolic risk score through the sum of their internal z-scores.
Results: Four-hundred children (51.8% girls) attended to the 8-year visit with a 3-day diary. Adjusted linear regression models showed that children who repeatedly stayed in the lowest tertile of fibre intake during childhood had higher HOMA-IR (p = 0.004), higher cardiometabolic risk score (p = 0.02) and a nonsignificant trend toward a higher SBP at 8 years. The higher the dietary intake of soluble fibre (from fruits and vegetables) at 8 years, the lower the HOMA-IR and the cardiometabolic risk score (p = 0.002; p = 0.004). SBP was directly associated with fibre from potatoes and inversely with fibre from nuts and pulses.
Conclusion: A diet rich in dietary fibre from fruits, vegetables, pulses and nuts from early childhood was associated to a healthier cardiovascular profile, regardless of children's weight.
Keywords: cardiovascular risk; children; dietary fibre; fibre food sources; insoluble fibre; resistant starch; soluble fibre.