Eating Frequency and Visceral Adipose Tissue, Body Fat, and Obesity Risk in Hispanic College Freshmen

It is important for college students to establish healthy habits during college because they
are likely to stay with them throughout their lives. The transition to college has been
identified as a critical period contributing to the rise in obesity rates. Several studies
have shown that the initial transition to college is associated with rapid weight gain and
the average weight gain in the first year of college ranges from 3.5 to 8.8 pounds. While
decreased dietary fiber, fruits and vegetables and junk food consumption are among the
dietary factors that have been linked to increased obesity rates in college students, little
is known about the effect of eating patterns on health in this population. Furthermore, lack
of sleep, smoking, binge drinking, and infrequent eating are all associated with negative
health outcomes. Previous work with college age youth has found that several behaviors
cluster together. The goal of the Online Survey portion is to expand on current findings, as
well as examine the interrelationships of alcohol use, sleep, smoking, and eating patterns
with adiposity and metabolic disease risk in a population of freshmen college students.

Eating frequency research has consistently found a negative association between the number of
eating occasions (EOs) per day and adiposity, as well as metabolic disease risk in both youth
and adult populations. Our group has shown that infrequent eating is linked to increased
obesity measures, blunted insulin action, and deleterious lipid parameters in multiple
populations of overweight Hispanic youth (8-18y). However, to date, no group has looked at
the effect of eating frequency on adiposity and metabolic disease risk in a sample of
overweight Hispanic college freshmen. In 2012, for the first time in history Hispanic high
school graduates (69%) were more likely to be enrolled in college than Non-Hispanic Whites
(NHW; 67%) and Blacks (63%) and last year Hispanic students represented 24% of freshman
enrollment at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), Hispanics also showed the largest
increase among all minority groups. Thus, the goal of the In-Person Visit is to examine the
relationship between eating frequency and adiposity/metabolic disease risk in this extremely
high-risk population of Hispanic freshmen and potentially identify interventions that may
reduce this risk within such a crucial period of life.

The human body contains 100 trillion microbes, and microbial genes outnumber human genes
100:110. Over the past decade, interest in the complex ecosystem of gut microbiota has
increased immensely and research has uncovered a relationship between gut microbiota,
metabolic disease, and obesity. Both diet and obesity have been shown to alter the gut
microbiota12,13. However, few studies have investigated how individual dietary components can
affect the gut microbiota in humans. The Stool Sample portion of the study is an exploratory
investigation of the relationship between dietary components and gut microbiota composition
in college-aged Hispanic freshmen.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Male or female;

- Ages 18-24 years;

- Self-reported Hispanics (all four grandparents must be Hispanic)

- 50% of the sample will be self reported infrequent eaters (those who eat less than 2
eating occasions per day), as measured by 24-hr recalls

- 50% of the sample will be self-reported frequent eaters (those who report 3 or more
eating occasions per day)

- A natural selection of normal, overweight and obese subjects will be recruited.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Subjects with serious medical disease as identified from a health history form;

- Pregnant;

- Taking any medications known to influence body composition or glucose/insulin action
or psychoactive medications;

- Are diagnosed with diseases that may influence glucose/insulin indices or body
composition;

- Have participated in a weight loss, dietary, or physical activity intervention in the
past 6 months;

- Have a learning impairment that would complicate survey administration;

- Have braces, a pacemaker, or any other contraindications to MRI scanning, as visceral
adipose tissue is a primary outcome