Contribuição de alimentos minimamente processados e ultraprocessados no risco cardiometabólico em adultos jovens brasileiros

Abstract

Objective: to associate food consumption with second degree of processing and cardiometabolic risk in young adults. Methods: A cross-sectional study comparing 120 young adults aged 18 to 25 years classified by the presence of cardiometabolic risk. Food consumption was assessed using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire and classified according to the extent of food processing. Biochemical, clinical, anthropometric, body composition, and lifestyle comparisons were performed using the Mann-Whitney test; food groups and tertiles of fresh food grams, minimally processed, processed and ultraprocessed by the Kruskal-Wallis test. Associations between second grade food consumption and cardiometabolic risk components were assessed by multivariate logistic regression. Results: high consumption of ultraprocessed foods was observed among young adults, regardless of whether or not they had cardiometabolic risk, determining the highest consumption of lipids in cardiometabolic risk (p=0.04). The higher consumption of ultraprocessed foods was a risk factor for abdominal obesity regardless of sex, physical activity level and alcoholic beverage (OR = 0.92, CI=0.78-1.08). In natura and minimally processed foods were protective for changes in LDL-C levels (OR=0.70; CI=0.50-0.98). Conclusion: fat from ultraprocessed foods represented a greater caloric contribution to cardiometabolic risk. In addition, ultraprocessed foods were a risk factor for abdominal obesity regardless of gender, physical activity and alcoholic beverage, and in natura and minimally processed foods were protective for changes in LDL-C levels.