Indicators of diet quality during growth and their associations with body composition and the timing of puberty

Nutritional influences prior to and during puberty may have sustained consequences for health and wellbeing later in life. Specifically, puberty has been proposed to be a potentially critical period for subsequent body composition development. In addition, nutritional influences on puberty onset could be of long-term relevance since an earlier puberty onset is believed to be a risk factor for several chronic diseases. This thesis aimed to investigate the association of diet quality prior to and during puberty with body composition development and with the timing of puberty onset. The data used came from the prospective DOrtmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) Study, which observes diet, growth and metabolism in healthy children from birth until young adulthood.