Consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and their association with cardiovascular events and cardiometabolic risk factors in Brazilians with established cardiovascular events

Abstract

Consumption of food in its natural form has an inverse relationship with cardiometabolic risk factors; however, the relationship between consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and the presence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remains unclear in individuals receiving secondary care for CVD. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the association between the consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and the presence of CVD and cardiometabolic risk factors in individuals with established CVD. Baseline data from 2357 participants in a Brazilian multicentre study showed that the consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods corresponded to most of the daily caloric intake (69.3%). Furthermore, regression analyses showed that higher consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods (>78.0% of caloric intake) was associated with a lower prevalence of elevated waist circumference (WC1; PR: 0.889; CI: 0.822–0.961; WC2; PR: 0.914; CI: 0.873–0.957) and overweight (PR: 0.930; CI: 0.870–0.994), but also was associated with simultaneous occurrence of coronary and peripheral artery disease and stroke (OR: 2.802; CI: 1.241–6.325) when compared with a lower intake (<62.8% of caloric intake). These findings reinforce the importance of nutritional guidance that considers the profile of the target population and the composition and quality of the meals consumed.