Dalia Ibrahim Tayel*
Nutrition Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Egypt
*Correspondence: Dr. Dalia Tayel, Assistant Professor. Email: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Background: Acrylamide is formed naturally in a wide variety of cooked starch-enriched foods at high temperatures that are heavily consumed by the Egyptian adolescents. Acrylamide toxicity induced significant reduction of some hormones such as testosterone in male rats. Acrylamide has a neurotoxic effect, endocrine and reproductive toxicity even in low dose. Objective: The aim was to estimate mean daily dietary intake of acrylamide for adolescents and to investigate the possible association between its intake and the timing of pubertal maturation. Subjects: A cross sectional study was conducted on 500 preparatory schools adolescents of both genders aged between 14-18 years. Collected data was about socio-demographic characteristics, age at onset of puberty (age at starting voice changes and/or first appearance of pubic, axillary or facial hair in boys; and age at first menstruation and/or breast development in girls), and dietary pattern (habits and intake using food frequency questionnaire included foods expected to contain high levels of acrylamide commonly consumed by the adolescents). Results: Dietary intake of acrylamide in µg/kg body weight/day was 17.23±7.26 among boys and 17.92±7.28 among girls. Relative to FAO/WHO high dietary exposure of acrylamide, it was 430.78±181.54 % among boys and 447.93±181.96 % among girls. Age at onset of puberty was increased significantly with the increase in acrylamide intake for boys and was decreased for girls. Conclusion: The dietary intake of acrylamide among adolescents was four times higher than accepted daily intake. Delayed puberty in boys and early one in girls may be associated with a very high intake of acrylamide.
Keywords: Acrylamide Dietary Intake, Adolescents, Menstruation, Puberty
Citation: Tayel DI. Dietary Acrylamide Intake and Timing of Pubertal Transition in Adolescents. Canad J Clin Nutr 2017; 5 (1): 40-54.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14206/canad.j.clin.nutr.2017.01.05
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