Ultra-Processed Food and Cardiometabolic Risk: What the Classification Does and Does Not Explain
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22281686Keywords:
Ultra-processed food, Food classification, Cardiometabolic risk, NOVA, Nutritional epidemiologyAbstract
Applied to the same 5,636 participants, four food processing classifications assigned between 7.9 and 45.9 per cent of intake to the
ultra-processed category, with an intraclass correlation of 0.51 between them. They also produced different findings: an
association with body mass index emerged under one system and with systolic and diastolic blood pressure under another, in the
same people. Within the category, subgroups point in opposite directions. Processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages and
refined grain products are consistently associated with higher cardiometabolic risk, while breakfast cereals, whole-grain breads
and some dairy products show neutral or inverse associations. Against that, controlled trials show that diets high in these foods
increase energy intake and weight, so something is operating beyond nutrient composition even where the category is a poor guide
to it.
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