Effect of ultraprocessed food intake on cardiometabolic risk is mediated by diet quality: a cross-sectional study
Griffin J, Albaloul A, Kopytek A, Elliott P, Frost G
BMJ nutrition, prevention & health · 24 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Cross-sectional study (classified by our AI screen)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
- Intake measured by
- Food diaries or recalls
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Possibly industry funded
- Government
- National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit
- Government
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Government
- Department of Health and Social Care
- Government
- Home Office
- Government
- Public Health England
- University or hospital
- UK Dementia Research Institute
- Government
- Medical Research Council
- University or hospital
- NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre
- Government
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
- Authors
- At least one author declares a financial tie to industry
- Grants
- Medical Research Council (MR/L01341X/1); NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC-P38084); Home Office (780‐TETRA); Medical Research Council (MR/L01341X/1); National Institute for Health and Care Research (NF-SI-0508-10112); Medical Research Council (MR/L01632X/1); Medical Research Council (MR/R023484/1); NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (HPRU-2012-10141); National Institute for Health and Care Research (NF-SI-0513-10029); Public Health England (MR/L01341X/1); National Institute for Health and Care Research (HPRU-2012-10141); Medical Research Council (MR/M501669/1)
Based on 9 listed funder(s) and full-text disclosure statement.
Publication
- Published
- 2021-04-07 · BMJ Nutr Prev Health · vol. 4 · issue 1 · pp. 174–180
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Cited
- 32 citations · more than 96% of similar papers · 5.5× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 44 works
- Access
- Open access (journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling · Food Waste Reduction and Sustainability · Nutrition, Genetics, and Disease
- Keywords
- Medicine, Cohort, Cross-sectional study, Saturated fat, Cohort study, Mediation, Food frequency questionnaire, Environmental health, Internal medicine, Animal science, Cholesterol, Biology
5 authors
From US, GB
- Jennifer GriffinAcademy of Nutrition and Dietetics; Imperial College London
- Anwar H. AlBaloulAcademy of Nutrition and Dietetics; Imperial College London
- Alexandra KopytekAcademy of Nutrition and Dietetics; Imperial College London
- Paul ElliottFaculty of Public Health; Imperial College London
- Gary Steven Frost · correspondingAcademy of Nutrition and Dietetics; Imperial College London
Abstract
Objective
To examine the effect of the consumption of ultraprocessed food on diet quality, and cardiometabolic risk (CMR) in an occupational cohort.
Design
Cross-sectional.
Setting
Occupational cohort.
Participants
53 163 British police force employees enrolled (2004-2012) into the Airwave Health Monitoring Study. A total of 28 forces across the UK agreed to participate. 9009 participants with available 7-day diet record data and complete co-variate data are reported in this study.
Main outcome measures
A CMR and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension score were treated as continuous variables and used to generate measures of cardiometabolic health and diet quality. Secondary outcome measures include percentage of energy from fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, protein and non-milk extrinsic sugars (NMES) and fibre grams per 1000 kcal of energy intake.
Results
In this cohort, 58.3%±11.6 of total energy intake was derived from ultraprocessed (NOVA 4) foods. Ultraprocessed food intake was negatively correlated with diet quality (r=-0.32, p<0.001), fibre (r=-0.20, p<0.001) and protein (r = -0.40, p<0.001) and positively correlated with fat (r=0.18, p<0.001), saturated fat (r=0.14, p<0.001) and nmes (r=0.10, p<0.001) intake. Multivariable analysis suggests a positive association between ultraprocessed food (NOVA 4) consumption and CMR. However, this main effect was no longer observed after adjustment for diet quality (p=0.209). Findings from mediation analysis indicate that the effect of ultraprocessed food (NOVA 4) intake on CMR is mediated by diet quality (p<0.001).
Conclusions
Ultraprocessed food consumption is associated with a deterioration in diet quality and positively associated with CMR, although this association is mediated by and dependent on the quality of the diet. The negative impact of ultraprocessed food consumption on diet quality needs to be addressed and controlled studies are needed to fully comprehend whether the relationship between ultraprocessed food consumption and health is independent to its relationship with poor diet quality.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
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