Culture Post: Ultra-Processed Foods Make Up Nearly Half of Calories for Canadian Kids

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

“We saw that ultra-processed foods contributed to almost half of a child’s total daily energy intake,” senior researcher Kozeta Miliku, an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto, said in a news release.

About 45% of the total daily energy intake for Canadian 3-year-olds came from ultra-processed foods, researchers reported in a new study published Jan. 31 in JAMA Network Open.

And higher intake of these foods at age 3 is linked to excess weight, higher body-mass index (BMI) and more body fat by age 5, researchers added.

Examples include chicken nuggets, frozen meals, hot dogs, canned soups, potato chips, soft drinks, sugary breakfast cereals, ice cream, packaged breads, flavored yogurts and condiments like ketchup and mayonnaise.

For the new study, Miliku and her colleagues analyzed data from more than 2,200 kids enrolled in a long-scale research project tracking children’s health.

Families completed detailed food questionnaires when their kids were 3, and researchers compared those responses to physical measurements taken of the same children at age 5.

Ultra-processed foods made up about 46% of daily calories for boys and 44% of calories for girls, results show.

In boys, every 10% increase in daily calories from ultra-processed foods was linked to a 19% increased risk of overweight or obesity, researchers found.

Ultra-processed foods also increased boys’ risk of higher BMI, waist-to-height ratio and body fat, the study says. No similar links were found in girls. (BMI is a measure of body fat basedd on height and weight.)

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/nutrition/ultra-processed-foods-make-up-nearly-half-of-calories-for-canadian-kids

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