Fruit juice may be bad for infants, tied to greater abdominal fat

Infants with high fruit juice intake appear to have higher abdominal adiposity, particularly visceral adipose-tissue (VAT), in mid-childhood and early adolescence, reveals a study.

“Excessive abdominal adiposity is associated with health risks in children and adults,” the investigators said. “Higher consumption of fruit juice and other sources of fructose has been shown to promote weight gain and specifically visceral adiposity in adulthood.”

Data from 783 participants in Project Viva, a US prebirth cohort, was analysed, with fruit juice intake at age 1 year as the exposure. The investigators used dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry to measure VAT, subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue (SAAT), and total abdominal adipose tissue (TAAT) in mid-childhood (mean age 7.8±0.7 years) and early adolescence (13±0.8 years).

Longitudinal associations of fruit juice intake at 1 year with VAT, SAAT, and TAAT area sex-specific standard deviation scores (SDSs) in mid-childhood and early adolescence were assessed using linear mixed models.

The investigators made adjustments for child age at outcome, sex, race/ethnicity, age, and body mass index (BMI) z-score at 1-year questionnaire, maternal prepregnancy BMI, level of education, and prenatal sugar-sweetened beverage intake, paternal BMI, and median household income at birth.

After adjusting for child and parental covariates, each serving (120 mL) per day of fruit juice at 1 year resulted in persistently greater VAT area SDS (β, 0.08, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.03–0.13) at both time points in boys and girls. The association of fruit juice intake with VAT seemed more robust than that with SAAT (β, 0.05, 95 percent CI, 0.00–0.09) and TAAT (β, 0.05, 95 percent CI, 0.01–0.10).

“Our findings support limiting fruit juice intake in infancy, which can have later impact on visceral adiposity in childhood and adolescence,” the investigators said.