ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1559271
This article is part of the Research TopicNutritional Management of Childhood Obesity and Related DiseasesView all 9 articles
Hepatic Fat and Dietary Intake as Determinants of Metabolic Health in Obese Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional MRI Study
Provisionally accepted
Hadar Lev1*
ron sternfeld2
Rotem Lazmi2Rivka Ohayon2Rivka Dudi2
Avivit Brener1ronit lubetzky1Shira Zelber3shlomi cohen1
Yftach Gepner2- 1Dana-Dwek Children's Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel
- 2Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel
- 3University of Haifa, Haifa, Haifa, Israel
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background : Obesity in youth is highly associated with metabolic risk. However, a subset of individuals maintains metabolic health despite the presence of obesity. This study aims to identify key factors associated with a metabolically healthy obese (MHO) in adolescents.: This cross-sectional study included 31 adolescents with obesity [median age:14 y, median body mass index (BMI) Z-score:2.58] categorized as MHO or metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO) based on the presence of one or more metabolic syndrome criteria. A comprehensive evaluation included MRI assessments of abdominal adipose tissue distribution and hepatic fat content (HFC), physiological and metabolic assessment, serum biomarkers, prenatal and sociodemographic characteristics, and dietary habits. Results: Compared to the MUO, MHO individuals exhibited significantly lower HFC (p=0.01), liver enzymes (p=0.004), and experienced a lower risk of complications during birth (p=0.03).Additionally, MHO participants had significantly lower intake of total calories (p=0.04), animal protein (p=0.005), red meat (p=0.02), sodium (p=0.027), palmitic acid (p=0.04), stearic acid (p=0.029), arachidonic acid (p=0.005) and calories from ultra-processed grains (p=0.049) compared to their MUO counterparts.Adolescents with MHO show lower hepatic fat, improved liver markers, and healthier dietary patterns than MUO peers. These findings underscore the potential influence of prenatal and lifestyle factors in distinguishing metabolic health profiles in adolescents with obesity.Trial registration: NCT06032312.
Keywords: Metabolic health, Obesity, adolescents, Hepatic fat content, Diet
Received: 12 Jan 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lev, sternfeld, Lazmi, Ohayon, Dudi, Brener, lubetzky, Zelber, cohen and Gepner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hadar Lev, Dana-Dwek Children's Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel
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