Ultra-processed food consumption and risk of obesity: a prospective cohort study of UK Biobank
File(s)Rauber2021_Article_Ultra-processedFoodConsumption.pdf (854.54 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Objective: To examine the associations between ultra-processed food consumption and risk of obesity among UK adults. Methods: Participants aged 40-69 years at recruitment in the UK Biobank (2006-2019) with dietary intakes collected using 24-hour recall and repeated measures of adiposity - body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and percentage of body fat (% BF) - were included (N=22,659; median follow-up: 5 years). Ultra-processed foods were identified using the NOVA classification and their consumption was expressed as a percentage of total energy intake. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of several indicators of obesity according to ultra-processed food consumption. Models were adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics. Results: 947 incident cases of overall obesity (BMI≥30 kg/m2) and 1,900 incident cases of abdominal obesity (men: WC≥102cm, women: WC≥88cm) were identified during follow-up. Participants in the highest quartile of ultra-processed food consumption had significantly higher risk of developing overall obesity (HR: 1.79; 95%CI: 1.06─3.03) and abdominal obesity (HR: 1.30; 95%CI: 1.14─1.48). They had higher risk of experiencing a ≥5% increase in BMI (HR: 1.31; 95%CI: 1.20─1.43), WC (HR: 1.35; 95%CI: 1.25─1.45) and %BF (HR: 1.14; 95%CI: 1.03─1.25), than those in the lowest quartile of consumption. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence that higher consumption of ultra-processed food is strongly associated with a higher risk of multiple indicators of obesity in the UK adult population. Policy makers should consider actions that promote consumption of fresh or minimally processed foods and reduce consumption of ultra-processed foods.
Date Issued
2021-06-01
Date Acceptance
2020-08-03
ISSN
0044-264X
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Start Page
2169
End Page
2180
Journal / Book Title
European Journal of Nutrition
Volume
60
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Nutrition & Dietetics
Food processing
Ultra-processed food
Obesity
Cohort study
United kingdom
ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
DIETARY
QUALITY
SUGARS
Cohort study
Food processing
Obesity
Ultra-processed food
United kingdom
1111 Nutrition and Dietetics
Nutrition & Dietetics
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-10-18