Simple Energy Balance or Microbiome for Childhood Obesity Prevention?

Authors

Tom Baranowski
Kathleen J Motil

Publication Date

8-9-2021

Journal

Nutrients

DOI

10.3390/nu13082730

PMID

34444890

PMCID

PMC8398395

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

8-9-2021

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Child, Diet, Healthy, Eating, Energy Metabolism, Female, Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Homeostasis, Humans, Male, Pediatric Obesity, behavioral nutrition, microbiome, energy balance, children, obesity prevention, multietiological

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.