*Article* **Are Peripheral Biomarkers Determinants of Eating Styles in Childhood and Adolescence Obesity? A Cross-Sectional Study**

**Lorena Desdentado 1,2,3, Jaime Navarrete 2, María Folgado-Alufre 2,3, Ana de Blas 4, Jéssica Navarro-Siurana 2, Francisco Ponce 1,4, Guadalupe Molinari 1, Andrea Jimeno-Martínez 1,5, Azahara I. Rupérez 1,5, Gloria Bueno-Lozano 1,5,6, Aida Cuenca-Royo 1,7, Emili Corbella 1,8, Zaida Agüera 1,9, Rosa M. Baños 1,2,3 and Julio Álvarez-Pitti 1,4,\***


**Abstract:** Disturbances in eating behaviors have been widely related to obesity. However, little is known about the role of obesity-related biomarkers in shaping habitual patterns of eating behaviors (i.e., eating styles) in childhood. The objective of the present study was to explore the relationships between several biomarkers crucially involved in obesity (ghrelin, insulin resistance, and leptin/adiponectin ratio) and eating styles in children and adolescents with obesity. Seventy participants aged between 8 and 16 (56.2% men) fulfilled the Spanish version of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire for Children to measure external, emotional, and restrained eating styles. In addition, concentrations of ghrelin, leptin, adiponectin, insulin, and glucose were obtained through a blood test. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses controlling for age and sex were computed for each eating style. Results indicated that individuals with higher ghrelin concentration levels showed lower scores in restrained eating (β = −0.61, *p* < 0.001). The total model explained 32% of the variance of the restrained pattern. No other relationships between obesity-related biomarkers and eating behaviors were found. This study highlights that one of the obesity-risk factors, namely lower plasma ghrelin levels, is substantially involved in a well-known maladaptive eating style, restraint eating, in childhood obesity.

**Keywords:** obesity; children; adolescents; ghrelin; insulin resistance; leptin; adiponectin; leptin/adiponectin ratio; eating behavior; eating styles

**Citation:** Desdentado, L.; Navarrete, J.; Folgado-Alufre, M.; de Blas, A.; Navarro-Siurana, J.; Ponce, F.; Molinari, G.; Jimeno-Martínez, A.; Rupérez, A.I.; Bueno-Lozano, G.; et al. Are Peripheral Biomarkers Determinants of Eating Styles in Childhood and Adolescence Obesity? A Cross-Sectional Study. *Nutrients* **2022**, *14*, 305. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/nu14020305

Academic Editor: Dina Bellizzi

Received: 21 October 2021 Accepted: 30 November 2021 Published: 12 January 2022

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