| Title |
Ultra-processed foods and added sugars in the US diet: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
BMJ Open, March 2016
|
| DOI | 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009892 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Eurídice Martínez Steele, Larissa Galastri Baraldi, Maria Laura da Costa Louzada, Jean-Claude Moubarac, Dariush Mozaffarian, Carlos Augusto Monteiro |
| Abstract |
To investigate the contribution of ultra-processed foods to the intake of added sugars in the USA. Ultra-processed foods were defined as industrial formulations which, besides salt, sugar, oils and fats, include substances not used in culinary preparations, in particular additives used to imitate sensorial qualities of minimally processed foods and their culinary preparations. Cross-sectional study. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2010. We evaluated 9317 participants aged 1+ years with at least one 24 h dietary recall. Average dietary content of added sugars and proportion of individuals consuming more than 10% of total energy from added sugars. Gaussian and Poisson regressions estimated the association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and intake of added sugars. All models incorporated survey sample weights and adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, family income and educational attainment. Ultra-processed foods comprised 57.9% of energy intake, and contributed 89.7% of the energy intake from added sugars. The content of added sugars in ultra-processed foods (21.1% of calories) was eightfold higher than in processed foods (2.4%) and fivefold higher than in unprocessed or minimally processed foods and processed culinary ingredients grouped together (3.7%). Both in unadjusted and adjusted models, each increase of 5 percentage points in proportional energy intake from ultra-processed foods increased the proportional energy intake from added sugars by 1 percentage point. Consumption of added sugars increased linearly across quintiles of ultra-processed food consumption: from 7.5% of total energy in the lowest quintile to 19.5% in the highest. A total of 82.1% of Americans in the highest quintile exceeded the recommended limit of 10% energy from added sugars, compared with 26.4% in the lowest. Decreasing the consumption of ultra-processed foods could be an effective way of reducing the excessive intake of added sugars in the USA. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 780 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 185 | 24% |
| Spain | 71 | 9% |
| United Kingdom | 53 | 7% |
| Canada | 24 | 3% |
| Australia | 17 | 2% |
| Argentina | 14 | 2% |
| France | 13 | 2% |
| Mexico | 12 | 2% |
| Italy | 10 | 1% |
| Other | 76 | 10% |
| Unknown | 305 | 39% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 526 | 67% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 156 | 20% |
| Scientists | 83 | 11% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 15 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 927 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 2 | <1% |
| Brazil | 1 | <1% |
| Australia | 1 | <1% |
| Spain | 1 | <1% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 921 | 99% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 161 | 17% |
| Student > Bachelor | 117 | 13% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 83 | 9% |
| Researcher | 74 | 8% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 52 | 6% |
| Other | 165 | 18% |
| Unknown | 275 | 30% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing and Health Professions | 165 | 18% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 133 | 14% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 77 | 8% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 50 | 5% |
| Social Sciences | 34 | 4% |
| Other | 148 | 16% |
| Unknown | 320 | 35% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2507. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 16 April 2024.
All research outputs
#3,114
of 25,789,020 outputs
Outputs from BMJ Open
#5
of 25,935 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#29
of 315,723 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMJ Open
#1
of 380 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,789,020 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 25,935 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 380 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.