Explaining the effects of a 1-year intervention promoting a low fat diet in adolescent girls : a mediation analysis

Background : Although it is important to investigate how interventions work, no formal mediation analyses have been conducted to explain behavioral outcomes in school-based fat intake interventions in adolescents. The aim of the present study was to examine mediation effects of changes in psychosocial determinants of dietary fat intake (attitude, social support, self-efficacy, perceived benefits and barriers) on changes in fat intake in adolescent girls.

Methods : Data from a 1-year prospective intervention study were used. A random sample of 804 adolescent girls was included in the study. Girls in the intervention group (n = 415) were exposed to a multi-component school-based intervention program, combining environmental changes with a computer tailored fat intake intervention and parental support. Fat intake and psychosocial determinants of fat intake were measured with validated self-administered questionnaires. To assess mediating effects, a product-of-coefficient test, appropriate for cluster randomized controlled trials, was used.

Results : None of the examined psychosocial factors showed a reliable mediating effect on changes in fat intake. The single-mediator model revealed a statistically significant suppression effect of perceived barriers on changes in fat intake (p = 0.011). In the multiple-mediator model, this effect was no longer significant, which was most likely due to changes in perceived barriers being moderately related to changes in self-efficacy (-0.30) and attitude (-0.25). The overall mediated-suppressed effect of the examined psychosocial factors was virtually zero (total mediated effect = 0.001; SE = 7.22; p = 0.992).

Conclusion : Given the lack of intervention effects on attitudes, social support, self-efficacy and perceived benefits and barriers, it is suggested that future interventions should focus on the identification of effective strategies for changing these theoretical mediators in the desired direction. Alternatively, it could be argued that these constructs need not be targeted in interventions aimed at adolescents, as they may not be responsible for the intervention effects on fat intake. To draw any conclusions regarding mediators of fat-intake change in adolescent' girls and regarding optimal future intervention strategies, more systematic research on the mediating properties of psychosocial variables is needed.

The earth does not get fat

This story was shortlisted for the Ink Tears International short story competition (UK) 2013 and subsequently published by the Australasian Association of Writing Programs.

Lipidomic profiling of chylomicron triacylglycerols in response to high fat meals

Using lipidomic methodologies the impact that meal lipid composition and metabolic syndrome (MetS) exerts on the postprandial chylomicron triacylglycerol (TAG) response was examined. Males (9 control; 11 MetS) participated in a randomised crossover trial ingesting two high fat breakfast meals composed of either dairy-based foods or vegetable oil-based foods. The postprandial lipidomic molecular composition of the TAG in the chylomicron-rich (CM) fraction was analysed with tandem mass spectrometry coupled with liquid chromatography to profile CM TAG species and targeted TAG regioisomers. Postprandial CM TAG concentrations were significantly lower after the dairy-based foods compared with the vegetable oil-based foods for both control and MetS subjects. The CM TAG response to the ingested meals involved both significant and differential depletion of TAG species containing shorter-and medium-chain fatty acids (FA) and enrichment of TAG molecular species containing C16 and C18 saturated, monounsaturated and diunsaturated FA. Furthermore, there were significant changes in the TAG species between the food TAG and CM TAG and between the 3- and 5-h postprandial samples for the CM TAG regioisomers. Unexpectedly, the postprandial CM TAG concentration and CM TAG lipidomic responses did not differ between the control and MetS subjects. Lipidomic analysing of CM TAG molecular species revealed dynamic changes in the molecular species of CM TAG during the postprandial phase suggesting either preferential CM TAG species formation and/or clearance.

Skeletal muscle fat metabolism after exercise in humans: influence of fat availability

The mechanisms facilitating increased skeletal muscle fat oxidation following prolonged, strenuous exercise remain poorly defined. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of plasma free fatty acid (FFA) availability on intramuscular malonyl-CoA concentration and the regulation of whole-body fat metabolism during a 6-h postexercise recovery period. Eight endurance-trained men performed three trials, consisting of 1.5 h high-intensity and exhaustive exercise, followed by infusion of saline, saline + nicotinic acid (NA; low FFA), or Intralipid and heparin [high FFA (HFA)]. Muscle biopsies were obtained at the end of exercise (0 h) and at 3 and 6 h in recovery. Ingestion of NA suppressed the postexercise plasma FFA concentration throughout recovery (P < 0.01), except at 4 h. The alteration of the availability of plasma FFA during recovery induced a significant increase in whole-body fat oxidation during the 6-h period for HFA (52.2 ± 4.8 g) relative to NA (38.4 ± 3.1 g; P < 0.05); however, this response was unrelated to changes in skeletal muscle malonyl-CoA and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC)β phosphorylation, suggesting mechanisms other than phosphorylation-mediated changes in ACC activity may have a role in regulating fat metabolism in human skeletal muscle during postexercise recovery. Despite marked changes in plasma FFA availability, no significant changes in intramuscular triglyceride concentrations were detected. These data suggest that the regulation of postexercise skeletal muscle fat oxidation in humans involves factors other than the 5′AMP-activated protein kinase-ACCβ-malonyl-CoA signaling pathway, although malonyl-CoA-mediated regulation cannot be excluded completely in the acute recovery period.