Sociodemographic associations of the dietary proportion of ultra-processed foods in First Nations peoples in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario

Abstract

We investigated the food types consumed by 3276 First Nations citizens from the First Nations Food Nutrition and Environment Study (FNFNES) living on-reserve in Canada. Data from 24-h dietary recalls were classified into NOVA categories: fresh or minimally processed foods (MPF), processed culinary ingredients, processed foods, and ultra-processed foods (UPF). Individuals were classified as traditional food (TF) eaters if they ate MPF of their First Nations culture. UPF accounted for 54.0% of energy intake; 23% of participants ate TF. Increasing age and household size, living in British Columbia and TF eating were associated with a lower intake of energy from UPF. Eating TF appeared to be protective against intake of UPF.

Keywords:

• Diet
• First Nation
• Indian
• North American
• NOVA classification
• ultra-processed food
• food: food processing: food choice

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the efforts of these individuals in the collection of the data used in this study: Olivier Receveur, Harold Schwartz, William David, Laverne Gervais, Lisa Wabegijig, Judy Mitchell and Kathleen Lindhorst. The authors would also like to thank Katerina Maximova for help with the statistical analyses and interpretation of the results. The authors would like to thank all members of the communities who participated and worked on the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this analysis was provided by an operating grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) for the research project “Pulling Together for Health Research: Food Security in First Nations Communities”, Grant nos. 348833 and 334049. The data used in this article originate from the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (FNFNES) funded by Health Canada. At the time of this research, Noreen Willows was the recipient of a Health Scholar award from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions.