Centro de Estudios Sobre Nutrición Infantil Dr. Alejandro O'Donnell (CESNI), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de los Alimentos Córdoba (ICYTAC), UNC-CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina.
Nutr Bull. 2023 Sep;48(3):317-328. doi: 10.1111/nbu.12624. Epub 2023 Jul 9.
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are associated with unhealthy diets and chronic diseases. Hence, knowing the consumption pattern of UPFs in the general population is crucial to design policies to improve public health, such as the recently approved law for the Promotion of Healthy Eating in Argentina (Law N° 27.642). The aim of the study was to characterise the consumption of UPFs according to income level and to assess their association with the intake of healthy foods in the Argentinian population. Healthy foods were defined in this study as those non-UPF groups that have been shown to reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases and excluded certain natural or minimally processed foods such as red meat, poultry and eggs. We retrieved data from the 2018-2019 National Nutrition and Health Survey (ENNyS 2), a cross-sectional, nationally representative survey performed in Argentina, including 15 595 inhabitants. We classified the 1040 food items recorded by the degree of processing using the NOVA system. UPFs represented nearly 26% of daily energy. The intake of UPFs increased with income, with a difference of up to 5 percentage points between the lowest (24%) and the highest (29%) income levels (p < 0.001). Cookies, industrial pastries, cakes and sugar-sweetened beverages were the most consumed UPF items, accounting for 10% of daily energy intake. We found that UPF intake was associated with a decrease in consumption of healthy food groups, mainly fruits and vegetables, where a difference of -28.3 g/2000 kcal and -62.3 g/2000 kcal between tertile 1 and tertile 3 was estimated, respectively. Therefore, Argentina still maintains a UPF consumption pattern of a low- and middle-income country, where UPF intake increases with income, but these foods also compete with the intake of healthy foods.
超加工食品（UPFs）与不健康饮食和慢性疾病有关。因此，了解一般人群中 UPF 的消费模式对于制定改善公众健康的政策至关重要，例如阿根廷最近批准的《促进健康饮食法》（第 27642 号法）。本研究旨在根据收入水平描述 UPF 的消费情况，并评估其与阿根廷人口中健康食品摄入的关系。在本研究中，健康食品被定义为已被证明可降低非传染性疾病风险的非 UPF 组，并排除了某些天然或最低限度加工的食品，如红肉、家禽和鸡蛋。我们从 2018-2019 年全国营养与健康调查（ENNyS 2）中检索数据，这是一项在阿根廷进行的横断面、全国代表性调查，共纳入 15595 名居民。我们使用 NOVA 系统根据加工程度对记录的 1040 种食品进行分类。UPFs 占每日能量的近 26%。随着收入的增加，UPFs 的摄入量也增加，最低（24%）和最高（29%）收入水平之间的差异高达 5 个百分点（p<0.001）。饼干、工业糕点、蛋糕和含糖饮料是最常食用的 UPF 食品，占每日能量摄入的 10%。我们发现 UPF 的摄入量与健康食品组（主要是水果和蔬菜）的摄入量减少有关，分别估计第 1 三分位组和第 3 三分位组之间的差异为-28.3g/2000kcal 和-62.3g/2000kcal。因此，阿根廷仍然保持着低收入和中等收入国家的 UPF 消费模式，随着收入的增加，UPF 的摄入量增加，但这些食品也与健康食品的摄入量竞争。
