Abstract: Childhood obesity has emerged as one of the major global public health challenges of the 21st century, with its prevalence steadily increasing and imposing a substantial burden on healthcare systems worldwide. A growing number of studies have shown that the intestinal microbiota plays an important regulatory role in the occurrence and development of childhood obesity. Obese children usually have a significant intestinal flora imbalance, manifested by a decline in microbial diversity, a reduction in beneficial bacteria such as Akkermansia and Bifidobacterium, and an increase in opportunistic pathogenic bacteria. Intestinal microbiota dysbiosis promotes the development of obesity through multiple mechanisms such as affecting energy metabolism and fat storage, inducing chronic low-grade inflammation, and interfering with gut-brain axis signal transduction. Therefore, nutritional and microecological intervention strategies targeting the intestinal microbiota, including dietary regulation, probiotic and prebiotic supplementation, and fecal microbiota transplantation, have gradually become a research hotspot. These studies provide a new theoretical basis and practical direction for the nutritional prevention and control of childhood obesity and development of functional foods. This review systematically summarizes the structural characteristics, metabolism and mechanism of action of the gut microbiota in obese children, as well as obesity intervention strategies targeting the gut microbiota, aiming to provide a scientific basis for exploring nutritional regulation and precise interventions for childhood obesity from the perspective of food science.

Key words: childhood obesity; gut microbiota; nutritional regulation; functional foods; probiotics