Within the last three many years, there was a major increase within the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, which stays a significant reason for mortality and morbidity. Concurrently, a rise within the variety of individuals with cardiometabolic risk (CMR) aspects, akin to high fasting plasma glucose, hypertension, obesity, and high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, has been recorded. 

Although several studies have established the link between higher ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption and increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases, not many studies have documented how modifying UPF consumption affects CMR aspects. Addressing this gap in research, a recent Atherosclerosis journal study investigates how changes in UPF consumption influence CMR aspects.

Study: Increased ultra-processed food consumption is related to worsening in cardiometabolic risk aspects in adults with metabolic syndrome: Longitudinal evaluation from a randomized trial. Image Credit: aquariagirl1970 / Shutterstock.com

Background

Weight-reduction plan plays a very important role in stopping the danger of developing heart problems. Typically, foods with high-density energy but low dietary content increase CMR aspects. Based on the NOVA classification, food, and beverages which are categorized as ultra-processed food (UPF) undergo a high level of business processing to make them more palatable, ready-to-eat, and accessible.

Within the last decade, the speed of UPF consumption has increased significantly. UPF intake has been related to lower food regimen quality because of high levels of total and saturated fats, free sugar, and low concentration of fibers, proteins, vitamins, and minerals in these products.

Several longitudinal, cross-sectional studies have established the link between UPF consumption and a number of other CMR aspects. A French study revealed that higher consumption of UPF increases the danger of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. One other prospective study conducted by Navarra University (SUN) indicated that higher UPF consumption increases the danger of hypertension by 21%.

Concerning the study

The potential study analyzed how modifications in UPF consumption influence CMR aspects, akin to body mass index (BMI), weight, blood pressure, waist circumference, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), triglycerides, blood glucose, cholesterol (total, HDL, and LDL), and triglycerides and glucose index (TyG index).

Relevant data were collected throughout the first 12 months of follow-up of the PREDIMED-Plus study. The PREDIMED-Plus is an ongoing multi-center, randomized clinical trial that was designed to research how intensive weight reduction intervention related to adherence to the Mediterranean food regimen, physical activity, and behavior prevents the incidence of cardiovascular diseases.

All participants were recruited between September 2013 and December 2016 from 23 centers across the Spanish territory and randomly assigned to 2 groups. Each female and male obese participants were employed.

All participants had three of the five risk aspects of metabolic syndrome, including hypertension, plasma HDL cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, plasma triglycerides, and obesity. Data on participants’ dietary intake was obtained through interviews, and answers were validated through a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) at baseline, six, and 12 months follow-up.

Study findings

A complete of 5,373 participants, 52% of whom were male and 48% female, met all eligibility criteria and were included in the current study. All participants were around 65 years of age. The participants with higher UPF consumption were significantly younger, less physically energetic, and least adept to stick to an energy-restricted Mediterranean food regimen.

Higher intake of UPF was positively related to waist circumference, weight, diastolic blood pressure, TyG index, HbA1c, triglycerides, and fasting blood glucose. On this context, several sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics were adjusted.

UPF consumption rate was reduced throughout the 12 months of follow-up, which might be because participants were instructed on the way to adhere to the Mediterranean food regimen. On this study, UPF presented 7.7% of the full amount of food consumed by weight.

The reduction in UPF consumption might be because all participants were obese and had metabolic syndrome at baseline. Thus, changes of their dietary intake might be a component of the healthcare regime.

Based on multivariable-adjusted analyses, higher UPF consumption was related to obesity and greater waist circumference. Nevertheless, such an association was not present in the lower UPF consumption group, as these associations exhibited a major dose-response relationship. After 9.1 years of follow-up, individuals with the very best UPF consumption exhibited an elevated risk of developing hypertension as in comparison with those with a lower intake of UPF.

Higher UPF consumption has been strongly linked with a rise in diastolic blood pressure. Nevertheless, when this effect was studied, no statistically significant association with systolic blood pressure was found when UPF consumption increased by 100 gm/day.

UPF consumption was also related to unfavorable levels of plasma triglycerides and TyG index but not with total HDL, and LDL cholesterol. A positive association between total cholesterol and a 5% increment in UPF consumption was estimated.

Conclusions

The present study has several limitations, including the shortage of generalizability within the cohort, because it comprised participants whose ages were between 55 and 75 years. As well as, all participants were obese and had metabolic syndrome at baseline. Moreover, this study followed NOVA classification, which shouldn’t be an ideal system to categorise UPF.

Despite these limitations, this study re-emphasized the antagonistic effect of UPF consumption on cardiometabolic risk aspects.