Weight discordant siblings’ ability to reduce energy intake at a meal as compensation for prior energy intake from sugar sweetened beverages

Authors: Ufholz, Kelsey; SALVY, SARAH-JEANNE - Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; FEDA, DENISE - University Of Buffalo; EPSTEIN, LEONARD - University Of Buffalo; Roemmich, James

Submitted to: Journal of Nutrition and Health
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/26/2020
Publication Date: 10/12/2020
Citation: Ufholz, K.E., Salvy, S., Feda, D., Epstein, L., Roemmich, J.N. 2020. Weight discordant siblings’ ability to reduce energy intake at a meal as compensation for prior energy intake from sugar sweetened beverages. Journal of Nutrition and Health. https://doi.org/10.1177/0260106020960990.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0260106020960990

Interpretive Summary: The greatest source of added sugar in adolescents’ diets comes in the form of sugar-sweetened beverages. Increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with weight gain and increased BMI, partly because such drinks supply additional calories that are not compensated for at later meals. While children are known to have comparatively better ability to compensate for prior energy intake than adults, less is known about compensation ability of adolescents. Results showed that adolescents decreased their calorie intake at a meal following a sugary drink. However, the decrease was not enough to fully compensate for the additional calories. Overweight and non-overweight siblings consumed similar amounts of calories. Siblings who were not overweight did not show better compensation than their overweight siblings. This suggests that ability to compensate for calories in a sugar-sweetened beverage is not a driving factor in weight differences between overweight and non-overweight siblings. It also shows that adolescents’ ability to compensate is diminished compared to younger age-groups and other methods must be used to regulate their calorie intake.

Technical Abstract: Background: Insufficient compensation for energy from a pre-meal sugar-sweetened beverage may promote greater energy intake. If so, compensation ability should account for differences in adiposity between non-overweight and overweight adolescents. Studies of fraternal siblings discordant for weight status control for some genetic and shared within-family factors, allowing testing of putative non-shared factors of sibling weight differences. Objective: To determine whether same-sex weight-discordant (one non-overweight, one overweight) adolescent siblings differ in ability to compensate for prior energy intake. Methods: Siblings (n = 38 pairs) consumed a sugar sweetened (450 kcal) or a non-nutritive sweetened (10 kcal) liquid preload of equal volumes on separate days, followed by an ad libitum lunch. Results: Siblings shared little within-family similarity in compensation (' = 0.20). When tested as groups, non-overweight and overweight siblings did not differ for compensation. Sibling zBMI difference was not associated with differences in compensation. Conclusion: Weight discordant adolescent siblings show little similarity in compensation for previous energy intake from liquids, but sibling differences in compensation were not associated with differences in their adiposity. Thus, other non-shared factors must contribute to adiposity differences of adolescents.