Inflammatory Dietary Pattern Associated With Metabolic Biomarkers, Blood Pressure and Anthropometric Indicators in Brazilian Adolescents

Background Diet may influence the subclinical inflammatory responses related to metabolic disorders. Objective To identify a dietary pattern associated with inflammatory biomarkers and to evaluate its association with metabolic, clinical and anthropometric indicators in Brazilian adolescents. Methods Data from Brazilian adolescents aged 12–17 years participating in the Study of Cardiovascular Risk in Adolescents (ERICA, 2013–2014) were analysed. Dietary intake was assessed using a 24‐h dietary recall. A dietary pattern was derived using the Partial Least Squares regression in a subset ( n = 3703) with C‐reactive protein and adiponectin as intermediate variables and retaining food groups with factor loadings ≥ |0.15|. Associations between the pro‐inflammatory dietary pattern and anthropometric indicators and metabolic biomarkers were examined in a subsample of adolescents ( n = 36 956) using crude and adjusted multiple linear regression models. Results The pro‐inflammatory dietary pattern was characterised by positive loadings for soft drinks, cakes, cheese, fats, pasta, snacks, sweets and bread, and with negative loadings for rice, milk‐based dishes, poultry, fish and beans. The mean inflammatory dietary pattern score was 0.05 overall, and higher for girls (0.08) than boys (0.03). Significant associations ( p < 0.05) were found between the pro‐inflammatory dietary pattern and increased BMI ( β = 0.07 kg/m 2 ), fasting blood glucose ( β = 0.20 mg/dL) and HOMA‐IR ( β = 0.03), after adjusting for sex, age, school type, diet report quality and daily energy intake. Conclusions Among Brazilian adolescents, a pro‐inflammatory dietary pattern was associated with higher body weight, fasting glucose and insulin resistance.