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Children and teenagers in the United States now get more than two-thirds of their calories from highly processed foods, according to an analysis of nearly two decades of data.
Highly processed foods — such as frozen pizza, microwave meals, packaged snacks and sweets — accounted for 67% of calories consumed in 2018, up from 61% in 1999. Research published in the medical journal JAMA Tuesday. The study analyzed the diets of 33,795 children and teenagers nationwide.
While industrial processing keeps food fresher and allows some foods to be fortified with vitamins, it also changes the consistency, taste, and color of food to make it more palatable, cheap, and convenient—using processes not used in home cooking. foods. They are also sold strongly in the food industry.
“Some whole grain breads and dairy products are healthier than other highly processed and highly processed foods,” said senior author Fang Fang Zhang, a nutrition and cancer epidemiologist at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. in Boston.
But many highly processed foods are unhealthy, high in sugar and salt and lower in fiber than unprocessed and minimally processed foods, and increasing consumption by children and teenagers is a concern.
The children’s dietary data used in the study were collected annually by trained interviewers who asked the children or their proxy to describe in detail what they had eaten in the past 24 hours. The information is collected as a single entity. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
In the year Between 1999 and 2018, the share of unhealthy or minimally processed foods decreased from 28.8% to 23.5% of calories consumed, the study found.
The remaining percentage of calories come from moderately processed foods such as cheese and canned fruits and vegetables, and flavor enhancers such as sugar, honey, maple syrup and butter, the study found.
The biggest increase in calories came from ready-to-eat or reheat foods like takeout and frozen pizza and burgers, from 2.2% to 11.2% of calories, the study found. The second largest increase was found in packaged sweets and desserts, the consumption of which increased from 10.6% to 12.9%.
The link between children’s health and ultra-processed food is complex, but a recent UK study found that children who ate more They are more likely to be overweight as adults.
The study concluded that childhood is a critical period for biological development and the implications for future health in forming eating habits are high, the experts said.
“The current food system is structured to promote highly processed foods through a variety of strategies, including pricing and promotions, aggressive marketing to youth and especially black and Latino youth, and the availability of high amounts of these products in schools,” he wrote. Katie Meyer and Lindsay Smith Tyley, assistant professors in the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Gillings’ School of International Health, commented on the study. They did not participate in the study.
Good news
There was good news to suggest that efforts to curb sugary drinks, such as soda taxes, were working: Calories from sugary drinks fell from 10.8% to 5.3% of total calories.
“We need to muster the same level of energy and commitment when it comes to unhealthy ultra-processed foods like cakes, cookies, donuts and brownies,” Zhang said.
Black, non-Hispanic youth experienced a greater increase in ultra-processed foods in their diets compared to their white counterparts. He said the study did not assess trends in other races or ethnicities due to the lack of nationally representative data. However, it found that Mexican American youth consumed the most processed foods in consistently low amounts, which the authors said reflects more home cooking among Hispanic families.
Parents’ education level or family income had no effect on the consumption of highly processed foods, suggesting that it is common in most children’s diets, the study added.
The authors say their study has some limitations: Asking people to recall what they ate isn’t always an accurate measure of diet. Additionally, there is a tendency to report socially undesirable habits, such as consuming unhealthy food.
In addition, accurately classifying highly processed foods can be challenging because it requires a complete list—information that cannot be provided by children answering the questionnaire.
“Better methods for dietary assessment and classification of foods are needed to understand trends and mechanisms of highly processed food intake,” Mayer and Tyley wrote.
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