Ultraprocessed foods associated with poor cardiovascular fitness in children
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
National survey data showed that children who consume more ultraprocessed foods have poorer locomotor skills and cardiovascular fitness, according to results presented at the Nutrition 2022 meeting.
The study made use of the NOVA classification system, designed at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, which sorts food products according to their level of processing.
Jacqueline Vernarelli, PhD, associate professor and MPH program director at Sacred Heart University, said in a Healio interview that the investigation was prompted in part by the release of the NOVA system.
“There [have] been kind of gaps in the knowledge about how ultraprocessed foods were consumed by the general U.S. public, particularly children,” Vernarelli said. “With the release of that NOVA classification scale for ultraprocessed foods, we decided it would be a great informative study to take a look at applying the NOVA scale to that data collected from the enhanced National Youth Fitness survey.”
Vernarelli and colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey’s 2012 National Youth Fitness Survey, which used interviews and fitness tests to assess 1,500 children aged 3 to 15 years and their physical activity, fitness levels and food intake.
They specifically examined foods listed in the survey, and gave each a NOVA classification, ranging from least-processed class 1 to ultraprocessed class 4. Ultraprocessed foods included packaged snacks, breakfast cereals, candies, soda, sweetened juices and yogurts, canned soups and prepared foods like pizza, hotdogs, burgers and chicken nuggets.
“Once we had classified all foods, we focused particularly on the ultraprocessed foods,” Vernarelli said.
The researchers found that among children aged 13 to 17 years, those with cardiovascular fitness levels categorized as “high risk” consumed approximately 200 calories more per day of ultraprocessed foods than their peers in the “healthy fitness zone.” Further, among toddlers aged 3 to 5 years, a greater intake of ultraprocessed foods was associated with lower locomotor skill development.
Vernarelli noted that because the data were cross-sectional, they could not prove causality, but also that the results showed the importance of practitioners discussing eating habits with patients and their parents.
“There [aren’t] a lot [of data] looking at what kids eat, particularly when children are already presenting with different risk factors for chronic disease, including things like obesity, diabetes, or prediabetes, or cardiovascular risk,” Vernarelli said. “But we ask a lot about sedentary behavior. [Clinicians] ask a lot about activity; we don't focus as much on foods. So, I think that the data really [are] kind of helping to open the door for clinicians to start asking parents and older adolescent patients about what they're eating and spread that conversation.”