(P04-046-24) Associations Between Diet and Bone Mineral Density Among Youth

Objectives: Adolescence to early adulthood is a critical window for establishing peak bone mineral density (BMD), with a lower peak BMD raising the risk of osteoporosis and fractures in later life. While factors like sex, low BMI, and certain ethnic backgrounds are established risk factors for low BMD, the impact of diet on bone density in youth remains ambiguous. Here, we conducted an exploratory analysis to identify nutrients that are significantly associated with BMD in the distal femur among adolescents and young adults.

Methods: Dietary data were collected from a group of healthy, young, and physically active individuals (n=13; mean age 18 ± 4 years; BMI: 21 ± 4.5; 62% female, 38% male; 77% non-Hispanic white, 15% Black, 8% Hispanic) using 3-day food records. Diet records were analyzed using The Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR). Thereafter, we exported nutrients from foods (output file 04) and determined mean intakes of all diet components. Concurrently, bone mineral density (BMD) of the distal femur was assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (Lunar iDXA, GE Healthcare). We used Pearson correlation analysis to uncover potential relationships between dietary components and bone mineral density (BMD), setting a significance threshold at a p-value of 0.01. We excluded dietary factors that showed correlations with weight, BMI, and sex from subsequent analyses. To further investigate the associations with BMD, we conducted stepwise regression analysis to confirm the significance of these relationships while adjusting for adjusting for sex and weight.

Results: Our findings show a negative association between aspartame consumption and BMD (Pearson R = -0.718, p = 0.006). Further, the regression model identified sex, weight, and aspartame intake as significant predictors of BMD, achieving an overall model adjusted R² of 0.854 (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Given the potential ability of aspartame to sequester calcium and enhance its excretion, these results underscore the importance of further research into aspartame's potential impact on BMD during critical developmental phases.

Funding Sources: NIH/NIAMS R01AR072061