Dietary Acrylamide Exposure and Its Correlation with Nutrition and Exercise Behaviours Among Turkish Adolescents

METİN KARAASLAN M., BAŞARAN B.

NUTRIENTS, cilt.17, sa.15, 2025 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 17 Sayı: 15
  • Basım Tarihi: 2025
  • Doi Numarası: 10.3390/nu17152534
  • Dergi Adı: NUTRIENTS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Agricultural & Environmental Science Database, BIOSIS, CAB Abstracts, CINAHL, Food Science & Technology Abstracts, MEDLINE, Veterinary Science Database, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Background/Objectives: Acrylamide is a probably carcinogenic to humans that naturally forms during the thermal processing of foods. An individual's lifestyle-especially dietary habits and physical activity-may influence the severity of acrylamide's adverse health effects. This study aimed to examine the relationship between adolescents' dietary and exercise behaviors and their dietary acrylamide exposure and associated health risks. Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 370 high school students in T & uuml;rkiye. Data were collected using the Nutrition Exercise Behavior Scale (NEBS) and a retrospective 24-h dietary recall questionnaire. Acrylamide exposure was calculated based on food intake to estimate carcinogenic (CR) and non-corcinogenic (target hazard quotient: THQ) health risks and analyzed in relation to NEBS scores. Results: Findings indicated that while adolescents are beginning to adopt healthy eating and exercise habits, these behaviors are not yet consistent. Emotional eating and unhealthy food choices still occur. Higher acrylamide exposure and risk values were observed in boys and underweight individuals. This can be explained mainly by the fact that boys consume more of certain foods-especially bread, which contains relatively higher levels of acrylamide-than girls do, and that underweight individuals have lower body weights despite consuming similar amounts of food as other groups. Bread products emerged as the primary source of daily acrylamide intake. Positive correlations were found between NEBS total and subscale scores and acrylamide exposure and health risk values. Conclusions: The study demonstrates a significant association between adolescents' health behaviors and acrylamide exposure. These results underscore potential public health concerns regarding acrylamide intake during adolescence and emphasize the need for targeted nutritional interventions to reduce risk and promote sustainable healthy behaviors.