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Sugary beverage and food consumption, and leukocyte telomere length maintenance in pregnant women

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 70, pages 1086–1088 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) has been inversely associated with sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption in cross-sectional studies, but no studies have examined whether dietary intake influences LTL over time. This study examined longitudinal associations between sugary foods and beverages and LTL. Participants were 65 overweight and obese pregnant women, aged 18–45 years, from a mindfulness intervention study conducted from early pregnancy (⩽16 weeks gestation) and followed through 9 months postpartum. During pregnancy and postpartum, dietary intake was measured with 24-h diet recalls, and LTL was assessed using quantitative PCR. Adjusting for sociodemographic and health characteristics, decreased SSB consumption from baseline to 9 months postpartum was associated with greater concurrent LTL lengthening (β=−0.102, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.192, −0.013). No associations between sugary foods and LTL were found in either period. The finding that reduced SSB consumption is associated with increased LTL warrants investigation in large cohort studies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Holly Wing, Gwen Valencia-Moscoso, Amber Benson and Samantha Schilf for assistance with study recruitment and data collection and Cy de Groat for assistance with data management. The authors also thank the study participants for their participation. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants (U01 HL097973 and K99 HD084758 to C.W. Leung). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Health and Community, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    C W Leung, K Coleman-Phox, N R Bush, N E Adler & E S Epel

  2. School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    B A Laraia

  3. Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    N R Bush, N E Adler & E S Epel

  4. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    J Lin & E H Blackburn

Authors
  1. C W Leung
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  2. B A Laraia
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  3. K Coleman-Phox
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  4. N R Bush
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  5. J Lin
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  6. E H Blackburn
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  7. N E Adler
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  8. E S Epel
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Correspondence to C W Leung.

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Competing interests

JL is a co-founder and consultant of Telomere Diagnostics Inc. (formerly Telome Health Inc.) and owns its stocks. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Leung, C., Laraia, B., Coleman-Phox, K. et al. Sugary beverage and food consumption, and leukocyte telomere length maintenance in pregnant women. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 1086–1088 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.93

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.93

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