Abstract
ABSTRACTOBJECTIVE To systematically review the evidence for the association between food consumption according to processing and cardiometabolic factors in adults and/or the elderly.METHOD Two independent evaluators analyzed the electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science and Lilacs until December 2018. We used the following terms: (convenience foods OR food processing OR highly-processed OR industrialized foods OR minimally-processed OR prepared foods OR processed foods OR ultra-processed OR ultraprocessed OR ultra processed OR unprocessed) AND (metabolic syndrome OR hypertension OR blood pressure OR diabetes mellitus OR glucose OR glycaemia OR insulin OR cholesterol OR triglycerides OR blood lipids OR overweight OR obesity) AND (adult OR adults OR adulthood OR aged OR elderly OR old). We assessed methodological and evidence qualities, and also extracted information for the qualitative synthesis from the selected studies.RESULTS Of the 6,423 studies identified after removing duplicates, eleven met the eligibility criteria. The main food classification we used was Nova. The consumption of ultra-processed foods was positively associated with overweight and obesity, high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome. All articles included met more than 50% of the methodological quality criteria. The quality of evidence was considered moderate for the outcome overweight and obesity and weak for hypertension and metabolic syndrome.CONCLUSIONS The Nova food classification stands out in the area of nutritional epidemiology when assessing the effects of food processing on health outcomes. Although caution is required in the interpretation, the results indicated that the consumption of ultra-processed foods can have an unfavorable impact in the health of individuals.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) comprise the main cause of mortality in the world and approximately three quarters of deaths occur in low and middle income countries[1,2]
The consumption of ultra-processed foods was positively associated with overweight and obesity, high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome
The Nova food classification stands out in the area of nutritional epidemiology when assessing the effects of food processing on health outcomes
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) comprise the main cause of mortality in the world and approximately three quarters of deaths occur in low and middle income countries[1,2]. Risk factors for CVD include behavioral factors, such as unhealthy eating, smoking, physical inactivity and alcohol abuse[1,3]. There are changes in eating habits worldwide, characterized by the dominance of products from the food industry[6,7,8] which are not part of the traditional food classification systems[9]. These traditional classifications are restricted to the biological properties of food, i.e., they group food according to the nutrients present in it[9]
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