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ULTRA-PROCESSED FOOD AND ITS LINK TO CHILDHOOD OBESITY
Canadian study finds at least three ways ultra processed foods cause obesity in children.
A new study has linked consumption of ultraprocessed foods with greater rates of obesity in a cohort of young Canadian children. It is part of a growing body of research pointing to the risks of these food choices.
The new research was published in the journal JAMA Network Open. It is the work of a research team associated with universities and hospitals in Canada and Malaysia.
At a Glance
- Ultraprocessed foods are becoming a bigger part of the North American diet.
- A study done in Canadian children found a link between these foods and childhood obesity.
- Boys were more strongly affected than were girls.
GROWING OBESITY CRISIS
Researchers worldwide are investigating the escalating obesity epidemic, which has shown consistent growth across nearly all nations. In the United States, adult obesity rates have more than tripled—from 11.6% in 1990 to over 40% by 2023, representing the highest obesity burden globally.
Similar dramatic increases have occurred in other diverse, populous countries. Canada, for instance, has witnessed obesity rates surge from 9.7% of adults in 1990 to more than 30% by 2023.
While the United States and Canada exemplify this troubling trend in large, heterogeneous populations, the highest obesity rates currently exist in certain small Pacific island nations. However, these statistics are influenced by relatively homogeneous Polynesian populations that have genetic predispositions toward larger body frames.
WHERE ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS COME IN
Health authorities point to a variety of reasons for this rise, with little firm data to favor one view over the other. Is it an increasingly sedentary lifestyle? Too much screen time? A diminution of the nutritional quality of fruits and vegetables because of modern farming practices that favor quantity over quality? Or something else?
Recent research, including the JAMA study, has increasingly implicated “ultraprocessed” foods (UPF) as a significant contributor to rising obesity rates. The study researchers characterized UPF as “shelf-stable but nutritionally imbalanced foods” and relied on the internationally recognized NOVA classification system to identify these products.
The NOVA system categorizes foods into four groups, with ultra processed foods falling into the fourth category. This classification encompasses commercially manufactured items such as mass-produced breads, rolls, cakes, cookies, breakfast cereals, soy burgers, flavored yogurts, and ready-to-heat products like frozen pizzas. On the beverage front, carbonated drinks are also included in this ultra processed designation.
CANADIAN COHORT STUDIES
To assemble a study population the researchers used the CHILD Cohort Study, which is a longitudinal, population-based pregnancy cohort study with four sites across Canada: Vancouver, Edmonton, Manitoba and Toronto. The study originally recruited more than 3,600 pregnant women between 2009 and 2012.
Among the more than 3,400 children being tracked in the study (which included dietary information collected at age 3), researchers gathered obesity-related measurements from 2,217 participants when they reached the 5-year mark. These measurements included BMI, waist-to-height ratio, and skinfold thickness at the subscapular and tricep sites.
The study population was composed of slightly more males than females, with approximately 65% of participants identified as White and the remaining 35% classified as belonging to other ethnic groups.
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