Dietary Patterns and Overweight/Obesity: A Review Article

BACKGROUND: Dietary patterns analysis may provide insights into the influence of overall diet on overweight/obesity. In the past two decades, the relation between dietary patterns and overweight/obesity has been a research focus and a number of results were reported in the research field. METHODS: An electronic literature search was conducted in PubMed and Web of Science, to identify human studies published by Mar 2015 and written in English. The following keywords or phrases were involved: dietary patterns, dietary pattern, factor analysis, principal component analysis, diet, obesity, adiposity, overweight and BMI. All the studies were retrieved and prudent/healthy (n=17) and western/unhealthy (n=18) dietary patterns were identified. RESULTS: When compared with the lowest categories of a prudent/healthy dietary pattern, a reduced overweight/obesity risk was shown in the highest (OR=0.64; 95% CI: 0.52, 0.78; P<0.0001). While there was an increased overweight/obesity risk in the highest when compared with the lowest categories of a western/unhealthy dietary pattern (OR=1.65; 95% CI: 1.45, 1.87; P<0.0001). CONCLUSION: A prudent/healthy dietary pattern and limit intake of western/unhealthy dietary pattern should be followed, which helps to keep a healthy body mass.