Mexican-American children are disproportionately affected by obesity. Data on how acculturation process influences diet and body weight among adolescents are limited. We used the data from the 1999-2004 NHANES, restricting to 2,286 Mexican American children between 12-19 years old. Acculturation was measured by generation status and language preference. Diet was assessed using 24-h diet recall. Multiple linear, Tobit, logistic, and quantile regression models were used. We found, after adjusting for socio-demographic factors, health, dietary intake, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors, compared to the 1st generation, 2nd and 3rd generation had greater odds of overweight and obesity. Adolescents in 2nd generation had higher BMI Z-scores than adolescents in 1st and 3rd generation. Both 2nd and 3rd generation adolescents consumed less fruit, whole fruit, vegetables, grains, and meats, but more sweetened beverage, whole grains, saturated fat, sodium, oil, and energy from discretionary foods. Higher language acculturation was associated with poorer diet and greater body weight. Our findings suggest that Mexican-American adolescents face challenges in terms of poorer diet and excessive weight gain associated with their immigration experience.
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