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Meta-Analysis
. 2016 Jan 28:352:i17.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.i17.

Dietary flavonoid intake and weight maintenance: three prospective cohorts of 124,086 US men and women followed for up to 24 years

Monica L Bertoia  1 , Eric B Rimm  2 , Kenneth J Mukamal  3 , Frank B Hu  2 , Walter C Willett  2 , Aedín Cassidy  4
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Dietary flavonoid intake and weight maintenance: three prospective cohorts of 124,086 US men and women followed for up to 24 years

Monica L Bertoia et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether dietary intake of specific flavonoid subclasses (including flavonols, flavones, flavanones, flavan-3-ols, anthocyanins, and flavonoid polymers) is associated with weight change over time.

Design: Three prospective cohort studies.

Setting: Health professionals in the United States.

Participants: 124,086 men and women participating in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS), Nurses' Health Study (NHS), and Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II).

Main outcome measure: Self reported change in weight over multiple four year time intervals between 1986 and 2011.

Results: Increased consumption of most flavonoid subclasses, including flavonols, flavan-3-ols, anthocyanins, and flavonoid polymers, was inversely associated with weight change over four year time intervals, after adjustment for simultaneous changes in other lifestyle factors including other aspects of diet, smoking status, and physical activity. In the pooled results, the greatest magnitude of association was observed for anthocyanins (-0.23 (95% confidence interval -0.30 to -0.15) lbs per additional standard deviation/day, 10 mg), flavonoid polymers (-0.18 (-0.28 to -0.08) lbs per additional SD/day, 138 mg), and flavonols (-0.16 (-0.26 to -0.06) lbs per additional SD/day, 7 mg). After additional adjustment for fiber intake, associations remained significant for anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, and total flavonoid polymers but were attenuated and no longer statistically significant for other subclasses.

Conclusions: Higher intake of foods rich in flavonols, flavan-3-ols, anthocyanins, and flavonoid polymers may contribute to weight maintenance in adulthood and may help to refine dietary recommendations for the prevention of obesity and its potential consequences.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: support for the study as described above; ERB and AC have a collaborative grant, unrelated to this project, to conduct observational and experimental studies of blueberries and cardiovascular disease health outcomes from the US Highbush Blueberry Council; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

None
Fig 1 Major dietary sources of flavonoids by subclass, averaged for 1986-2010 in Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) and Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and 1991-2007 in NHS II.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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