The associations of eating behavior and dietary intake with metabolic syndrome in Japanese: Saku cohort baseline study

BACKGROUND: The prevention of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a major public health concern in Japan. The effects of the relationship between eating behavior and nutritional intake on MetS remained unclear. To evaluate nutrition’s role in preventing or exacerbating MetS, we examined the associations among eating behavior, nutritional intake, and MetS for the baseline study in the cohort subjects undergone health checkups. METHODS: Four thousand and four hundred forty-seven Japanese men and women were enrolled at the Saku Central Hospital. They received an anthropometric and clinical examination and were assessed for present illness, lifestyle factors such as physical activity, smoking, drinking, and dietary habits at the enrollment. Eating behavior was analyzed by the Sakata’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Dietary assessment was made using a brief self-administered diet history questionnaire. Two thousand and six hundred two men and 1844 women aged more than 20 were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean age in men and women were 59.2 and 58.4 years old and the mean body mass index (BMI) were 23.7 and 22.3 kg/m(2), respectively. The percentages of MetS were 20.6 in men and 6.1 in women. In some nutrients, significantly higher energy-adjusted intakes in subjects without MetS than with Mets appeared both in men and women after age adjustment. After adjusting by age, energy-adjusted intake beverages in men and cereals in women were significantly higher in subjects with MetS than those without MetS. The scores of all the categories in eating behavior were significantly worse in subjects with MetS than those without MetS. CONCLUSIONS: The differences in dietary intake between subjects with Mets and without Mets were relatively small. The scores of all the categories in eating behavior were worse in subjects with MetS than without MetS. It was suggested that the problem lay in the quality of diet, not in the quantity, caused by bad eating habits. The potential influence of eating behavior and nutritional intake on MetS was presented in men and women.