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Review
. 2021 Aug 9;13(8):2730.
doi: 10.3390/nu13082730.

Simple Energy Balance or Microbiome for Childhood Obesity Prevention?

Tom Baranowski  1 , Kathleen J Motil  1
Affiliations
Review

Simple Energy Balance or Microbiome for Childhood Obesity Prevention?

Tom Baranowski et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Obesity prevention interventions generally have either not worked or had effects inadequate to mitigate the problem. They have been predicated on the simple energy balance model, which has been severely questioned by biological scientists. Numerous other etiological mechanisms have been proposed, including the intestinal microbiome, which has been related to childhood obesity in numerous ways. Public health research is needed in regard to diet and the microbiome, which hopefully will lead to effective child obesity prevention.

Keywords: behavioral nutrition; children; energy balance; microbiome; multietiological; obesity prevention.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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