Calcaterra Valeria, Cena Hellas, Rossi Virginia, Santero Sara, Bianchi Alice, Zuccotti Gianvincenzo
Department of Internal Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
Pediatric Department, Buzzi Children's Hospital, 20154 Milano, Italy.
Children (Basel). 2023 Apr 29;10(5):804. doi: 10.3390/children10050804.
Obesity and overweight are a major public health problem globally. Diet quality is critical for proper child development, and an unhealthy diet is a preventable risk factor for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as obesity. Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in childhood may increase the BMI/BMI z-score, body fat percentage, or likelihood of overweight. A strict feeding regulation system allows for sufficient food to be consumed to meet ongoing metabolic demands while avoiding overconsumption. This narrative review explores the issues of obesity and the regulation of food intake related to reward systems and UPF consumption. Nutrient composition alone cannot explain the influence of UPFs on the risk of obesity. Furthermore, the non-nutritional properties of UPFs may explain the mechanisms underlying the relationship with obesity and NCDs. UPFs are designed to be highly palatable, appealing, and energy dense with a unique combination of the main taste enhancer ingredients to generate a strong rewarding stimulus and influence the circuits related to feeding facilitation. How individual UPF ingredients influence eating behavior and reward processes remains not fully elucidated. To increase the knowledge on the relationship between UPFs and pediatric obesity, it may be useful to limit the rapid growth in the prevalence of obesity and subsequent related complications, and to develop new strategies for appropriate food and nutrition policies.
肥胖和超重是全球主要的公共卫生问题。饮食质量对儿童的正常发育至关重要，不健康的饮食是肥胖等非传染性疾病的一个可预防风险因素。儿童期饮用含糖饮料和食用超加工食品（UPF）可能会增加体重指数/体重指数z评分、体脂百分比或超重的可能性。严格的进食调节系统能使机体摄入足够的食物以满足持续的代谢需求，同时避免过度进食。本叙述性综述探讨了肥胖问题以及与奖励系统和UPF消费相关的食物摄入量调节问题。仅营养成分无法解释UPF对肥胖风险的影响。此外，UPF的非营养特性可能解释了其与肥胖和非传染性疾病之间关系的潜在机制。UPF被设计成具有高度适口性、吸引力且能量密集，含有主要味觉增强成分的独特组合，以产生强烈的奖励刺激并影响与进食促进相关的神经回路。单个UPF成分如何影响饮食行为和奖励过程仍未完全阐明。为了增加对UPF与儿童肥胖之间关系的认识，限制肥胖患病率及其相关并发症的快速增长，并制定适当的食品和营养政策新策略可能会有所帮助。
