Consumption of ultra-processed foods and eight-year risk of death from all causes and noncommunicable diseases in the ELSA-Brasil cohort

Abstract

Increased consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) is associated with higher incidences of many noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and death from all causes. However, the association between UPF and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality remains controversial. Our study investigated whether UPF consumption is associated with a higher risk of death from all causes, NCDs, and CVD. This study includes 14,747 participants from the ELSA-Brasil cohort followed up over an eight-year period. The NOVA classification was used to estimate the proportion of UPF (grams/day) in one’s diet. Cox regression was also applied. After adjustment for sociodemographic, health, and behavioural factors, a 10% increase in UPF in participants’ diets raised the risk of death from all causes and NCDs by 10% (95%CI: 1.01-1.19) and 11% (95%CI:1.02-1.21), respectively. However, UPF consumption was not associated with CVD mortality. The findings support public policies aimed at reducing UPF consumption in an attempt to reduce the NCD burden.

Keywords:

• Ultra-processed food
• noncommunicable diseases
• cardiovascular diseases
• mortality

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the staff and participants of the ELSA-Brasil for their essential contributions.

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the corresponding author, SMB, upon reasonable request. The data are not publicly available due to privacy constraints.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Brazilian Ministry of Health (Department of Science and Technology) and the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos—FINEP; and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico—CNPq), through Grant nos. 01 06 0010.00 RS, 01 06 0212.00 BA, 01 06 0300.00 ES, 01 06 0278.00 MG, 01 06 0115.00 SP and 01 06 0071·00 RJ. Grants follow-up 01 10 0643-03 RS; 01 10 0742-00 BA; 01 11 0093-01 RJ; 01 12 0284-00 ES; 01 10 0746-00 MG; 01 10 0773-00 SP.