Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 23;15(9):2027.
doi: 10.3390/nu15092027.

Association between Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods and Sociodemographic Characteristics in Brazilian Adolescents

Hélida Ventura Barbosa Gonçalves  1   2 , Letícia Spricido Batista  1 , Ana Laura Benevenuto de Amorim  1   3 , Daniel Henrique Bandoni  1
Affiliations

Association between Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods and Sociodemographic Characteristics in Brazilian Adolescents

Hélida Ventura Barbosa Gonçalves et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Background: The consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with several negative health outcomes. Studies on adolescents have shown that this population has a high consumption of these foods, especially in high-income countries. However, there are no studies on the types of ultra-processed foods consumed. The present study evaluated secondary data from a representative sample of the National School Health Survey, the consumption of ultra-processed foods by 159,245 Brazilian adolescents.

Methods: Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire using a mobile device. A Poisson regression model was used to assess the prevalence of ultra-processed food consumption and its correlation with sociodemographic characteristics.

Results: The consumption of ultra-processed foods was significant among Brazilian adolescents, and almost half of the participants reported consumption the day before. We observed that sociodemographic characteristics such as school type, race/skin color, region, municipality type, age, living with mother, living with father, and maternal education level were associated with greater or lesser consumption of ultra-processed foods. Adolescents who study in private schools, are female, white, and live in non-capital cities consume more ultra-processed foods.

Conclusions: Access to in natura and minimally processed foods must be on the agenda of governments and encouraged by food and nutrition education to guarantee the right to adequate and healthy food.

Keywords: adolescents; food consumption; ultra-processed foods.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Popkin B.M., Adair L.S., Ng S.W. Global Nutrition Transition and the Pandemic of Obesity in Developing Countries. Nutr. Rev. 2012;70:3–21. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2011.00456.x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vandevijvere S., Jaacks L.M., Monteiro C.A., Moubarac J., Girling-Butcher M., Lee A.C., Pan A., Bentham J., Swinburn B. Global Trends in Ultraprocessed Food and Drink Product Sales and Their Association with Adult Body Mass Index Trajectories. Obes. Rev. 2019;20:10–19. doi: 10.1111/obr.12860. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Elizabeth L., Machado P., Zinöcker M., Baker P., Lawrence M. Ultra-Processed Foods and Health Outcomes: A Narrative Review. Nutrients. 2020;12:1955. doi: 10.3390/nu12071955. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Askari M., Heshmati J., Shahinfar H., Tripathi N., Daneshzad E. Ultra-Processed Food and the Risk of Overweight and Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies. Int. J. Obes. 2020;44:2080–2091. doi: 10.1038/s41366-020-00650-z. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Monteiro C.A., Cannon G., Moubarac J.-C., Levy R.B., Louzada M.L.C., Jaime P.C. The UN Decade of Nutrition, the NOVA Food Classification and the Trouble with Ultra-Processing. Public Health Nutr. 2018;21:5–17. doi: 10.1017/S1368980017000234. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources