Increased Consumption of Ultra-Processed Food Is Associated with Poor Mental Health in a Nationally Representative Sample of Adolescent Students in Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the association between ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption and mental health symptoms in a nationally representative sample of the Brazilian adolescent student population. Cross-sectional analyses with data from the National School-Based Health Survey (PeNSE 2019) were performed. Self-reported information was obtained for the frequency of five mental health symptoms in the last month and the consumption of thirteen UPFs in the last 24 h. Generalized linear models adjusting for the main confounders were performed for each sex. Of the 94,767 adolescent students (52.4% girls) included, 8.1% of the boys and 27.2% of the girls reported “almost always” or “always” having at least four of the five mental health symptoms. In the fully adjusted models, compared to the boys who consumed ≤3 UPF, those consuming ≥6 UPF reported more frequent symptoms of poor mental health (ß-coefficient = 0.27 [0.03, 0.51]; p-for-trend = 0.005). A similar association was observed in girls (ß-coefficient = 0.31 [0.13, 0.50]; p-for-trend = 0.001). In conclusion, in this large sample of adolescent students from an entire country, the higher the consumption of UPF was, the higher the frequency of reported symptoms of poor mental health. These findings remained significant regardless of sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, self-perceived body image, and bullying victimization.

Ultra-Processed Food Consumption is Associated with Alcoholic Beverage Drinking, Tobacco Smoking, and Illicit Drug Use in Adolescents: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

“…*p-value < 0.05, **p-value < 0.01, ***p-value < 0.001 favors microbiota dysfunction (Cuevas-Sierra et al, 2021) and increases DNA oxidative damage (Edalati et al, 2021) and inflammatory markers (Lane et al, 2022a, b;Martins et al, 2022). Consequently, consuming more UPF increases the risk of nutritional, cardiometabolic and mental health disorders and symptoms (Elizabeth et al, 2020;Louzada et al, 2022;Mesas et al, 2022). Therefore, apart from sharing brain pathways related to addiction to other psychoactive substances, UPF consumption can trigger pathophysiological processes that may increase the incidence of elevated symptoms of common mental disorders (Werneck et al, 2022) and adolescents' vulnerability to other self-destructive behaviors, such as illicit drug use (Temple, 2016;Volkow et al, 2012;Zawertailo et al, 2020).…”

“…Furthermore, drug use disorders have been ranked among the top twenty leading causes of global disability-adjusted life-years for ages 10 to 24 (Abbafati et al, 2020). Moreover, previous studies linked UPF consumption with elevated symptoms of common mental disorders (Mesas et al, 2022;Werneck et al, 2022).…”

Mediterranean Dietary Patterns Related to Sleep Duration and Sleep-Related Problems among Adolescents: The EHDLA Study

“…The intake of ultra-processed foods may be associated with increased levels of inflammatory biomarkers, which are related to harmful sleep outcomes [ 41 ]. Furthermore, the consumption of ultra-processed foods has been related to higher depressive symptoms [ 42 ], anxiety-induced sleep disturbance [ 43 ], and mental health complications [ 44 ], likely owing to various mechanisms (e.g., inflammation, neuroplasticity, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis function).…”

Common mental disorders in Brazilian adolescents: association with school characteristics, consumption of ultra-processed foods and waist-to-height ratio

“…The scientific literature has explored the association between ultra-processed foods and mental health in adults 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 and adolescents 18 , 19 . Studies have suggested that the consumption of ultra-processed foods may be associated with mental disorders 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 .…”

“…The scientific literature has explored the association between ultra-processed foods and mental health in adults 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 and adolescents 18 , 19 . Studies have suggested that the consumption of ultra-processed foods may be associated with mental disorders 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 . However, regardless of the design, these studies only considered the intake of ultra-processed foods, without considering other food environment factors.…”