Ultra-processed foods, changes in blood pressure and incidence of hypertension: the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil)

Abstract

Objective: To estimate changes in blood pressure and the incidence of hypertension associated with consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) by Brazilian civil servants at a four-year follow-up. Design: Longitudinal analysis of the ELSA-Brasil with non-hypertensive individuals at baseline. We applied the food frequency questionnaire at the baseline and categorized energy intake by degree of processing, using the NOVA classification. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were measured at baseline (2008-2010) and again at first follow-up (2012-2014). Incidence of arterial hypertension was defined as SBP ≥ 140 mmHg or DBP ≥ 90 mmHg or antihypertensive medication during the previous two weeks. A mixed-effect linear regression model and mixed-effect logistic regression model were used to estimate associations between UPF consumption and, respectively, changes in blood pressure and incidence of hypertension. Setting: Brazil. Subjects: Civil servants of Brazilian public academic institutions in six cities (n 8,754), aged 35-74 years at baseline (2008-2010). Results: UPF consumption contributed 25.2% (SD = 9.6) of total calories consumed. After adjustment, participants with high UPF consumption presented a 23% greater risk of developing hypertension (OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.06-1.44) than those with low UPF consumption. We did not find association between UPF consumption and changes in blood pressure over time. Conclusions: The higher the UPF consumption, the higher was the risk of hypertension in adults. Reducing UPF consumption is thus important to promote health and prevent hypertension.

Socioeconomic Characteristics and Trends in the Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods in Korea from 2010 to 2018

“…Growing evidence has accumulated that the consumption of ultra-processed foods has positive associations with metabolic health [7,13,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59] such as obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes, cardiovascular diseases [12,14], cancer [60,61], and mortality [9,62,63]. The adverse impacts of ultra-processed foods on human health have been explained by the poor nutrient profile of these foods [3,17], the low dietary quality [3,4,11,33] associated with the consumption of these foods, and the addictive eating behaviors induced by these foods, which may lead to overconsumption [7,64].…”

Ultra-processed food consumption and its correlates among Italian children, adolescents and adults from the Italian Nutrition & Health Survey (INHES) cohort study

“…Major adverse life events (yes/no) were assessed by asking participants whether in the past year they had experienced one or more of the following: (1) marital separation or divorce; (2) business failure; (3) major intra-family conflict; (4) death or major illness of a close family member; (5) loss of job or retirement, violence; (6) death of a spouse; (7) major personal injury or illness or (8) other major stress.…”

“…The classification system NOVA (a name, not an acronym)is widely used at epidemiological level and rates foods according to the extent and purpose of processing into one of the following categories: (1) unprocessed or minimally processed foods; (2) processed culinary ingredients, processed foods and (3) UPF and drink products (4) . Excessive consumption of UPF has been associated with higher risk of metabolic conditions predisposing to increased health risk, such as obesity (5) , hyperlipidaemia (6) , hypertension (7) , diabetes (8) and metabolic syndrome (9) .…”

In This Issue: Ultra-processed food and health

“…Three studies were conducted in adults, covering gestational weight gain (4) , cardiovascular events (5) and blood pressure (6) . In 259 pregnant women in Brazil, dietary intake was assessed by two 24-h recalls and the percentage of energy from ultra-processed foods calculated.…”

“…Participants were 8754 civil servants from six cities in Brazil. Ultra-processed food provided around 25 % of energy and intake was positively associated with risk of developing hypertension (OR 1•23 95 % CI 1•06, 1•44 for tertile 3 v. tertile 1) (6) .…”