The manifestation of cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, and particularly obesity begins in children and adolescents, with deleterious effects for cardiometabolic health at adulthood. Although the impact of diet on cardiovascular risk factors has been studied extensively in adults, showing that their cardiometabolic health is strongly lifestyle-dependent, less is known about this impact in children and adolescents. In particular, little is known about the relationship between their dietary patterns, especially when derived a posteriori, and cardiovascular risk. An adverse association of cardiovascular health and increased intake of sodium, saturated fat, meat, fast food and soft drinks has been reported in this population. In contrast, vitamin D, fiber, mono-and poly-unsaturated fatty acids, dairy, fruits and vegetables were positively linked to cardiovascular health.The aim of this review was to summarize current epidemiological and experimental evidence on the impact of nutrients, foods, and dietary pattern on cardiometabolic health in children and adolescents. A comprehensive review of the literature available in English and related to diet and cardiometabolic health in this population was undertaken via the electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Medline.

This research was supported by a grant (2FD097-0297-CO2-01) from Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER); by a national scholarship from Spain’s Ministry of Education for PhD training to prepare university professors (FPU: AP2010-3198); by portions of grants from Spain’s Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo, Instituto de Salud Carlos III: FEDER [PI11/01900], FEDER [CB06/02/0029] and Red Investigación Cardiovascular, Programa HERACLES [RD12/0042]) and from the Catalan government’s agency that supports university research groups (AGAUR: 2014 SGR 240), and the King Abdullah scholarship program [2014, ID 2631]. The CIBERESP and CIBEROBN networks are an initiative of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.