Consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and their association with cardiovascular events and cardiometabolic risk factors in Brazilians with established cardiovascular events

Abstract

Consumption of food in its natural form has an inverse relationship with cardiometabolic risk factors; however, the relationship between consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and the presence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remains unclear in individuals receiving secondary care for CVD. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the association between the consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and the presence of CVD and cardiometabolic risk factors in individuals with established CVD. Baseline data from 2357 participants in a Brazilian multicentre study showed that the consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods corresponded to most of the daily caloric intake (69.3%). Furthermore, regression analyses showed that higher consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods (>78.0% of caloric intake) was associated with a lower prevalence of elevated waist circumference (WC1; PR: 0.889; CI: 0.822–0.961; WC2; PR: 0.914; CI: 0.873–0.957) and overweight (PR: 0.930; CI: 0.870–0.994), but also was associated with simultaneous occurrence of coronary and peripheral artery disease and stroke (OR: 2.802; CI: 1.241–6.325) when compared with a lower intake (<62.8% of caloric intake). These findings reinforce the importance of nutritional guidance that considers the profile of the target population and the composition and quality of the meals consumed.

Keywords:

• Cardiovascular diseases
• food consumption
• NOVA
• risk factors

Acknowledgments

We thank all the patients for participating in this project and all participating centers: Cristiane Kovacs – Instituto Dante Pazzanese de Cardiologia, São Paulo–SP. Annie S B Moreira – Hospital Universitário Pedro Ernesto, Rio de Janeiro–RJ e Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia, Rio de Janeiro–RJ. Rosileide S Torres – Hospital das Clínicas Gaspar Vianna, Belém–PA. Helyde A Marinho – Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus–AM. Cristina H de Matos – Universidade Vale do Itajaí, Itajaí–SC. Renata T A Bertacco – Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas–RS. Gabriela C Souza – Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre–RS. Gabriela S Shirmann – Universidade da Região da Campanha, Bagé–RS. Francisca E Z Nagano – Hospital de Clínicas da Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba–PR. Maria E M Ramos – Hospital Universitário Associação Educadora São Carlos, Canoas–RS. Soraia Poloni – Instituto de Cardiologia do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre–RS. Raquel M El Kik – Hospital São Lucas da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre–RS. Naoel H Feres – Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso, Cuiabá–MT. Eliane S Dutra – Hospital Universitário de Brasília, Brasília–DF. Ana P P F Carvalho – Hospital das Clínicas de Goiânia, Goiânia–GO. Marta M David – Hospital Universitário Maria Aparecida Pedrossian, Campo Grande–MS. Isa G Rodrigues – Pronto Socorro Cardiológico Universitário de Pernambuco, Recife–PE. Antonio C S Sousa – Hospital São Lucas, Aracaju–SE. Amanda G L Coura – Hospital Universitário Alcides Carneiro, Campina Grande–PB. Josilene M F Pinheiro – Hospital Universitário Ana Bezerra, Santa Cruz–RN. Sandra M L Vasconcelos – Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió–AL. Andreza M Penafort – Universidade de Fortaleza, Fortaleza–CE. Daniele M O Carlos – Hospital de Messejana, Fortaleza–CE. Viviane Sahade – Hospital Universitário Professor Edgard Santos, Salvador–BA. Adriana B Luna – Hospital Universitário da Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Aracaju–SE. José A F Neto – Hospital Universitário da Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luís–MA. Emilio H Moriguchi – Associação Veranense de Assistência em Saúde, Veranópolis–RS. Maria C O Izar – Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo–SP. Sônia L Pinto – Universidade Federal de Tocantins, Palmas–TO. Hospital São Vicente de Paulo, Luciano M Backes – Passo Fundo–RS. Simone R Souza – Instituto Estadual de Cardiologia Aloysio de Castro, Rio de Janeiro–RJ. Magali C C – COTENUT, Porto Alegre – RS.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Hospital do Coração (HCor) as part of the “Hospitais de Excelência a Serviço do SUS (PROADI-SUS)” Program, in partnership with the Brazilian Ministry of Health. JB and AM are CNPq Researchers Fellows. ARC and AS received scholarships from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [CAPES, Code 001].