Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2016 Nov;104(5):1433-1440.
doi: 10.3945/ajcn.116.135004. Epub 2016 Oct 12.

Ultraprocessed food consumption and risk of overweight and obesity: the University of Navarra Follow-Up (SUN) cohort study

Raquel de Deus Mendonça  1   2   3 , Adriano Marçal Pimenta  1   4 , Alfredo Gea  1   5   6 , Carmen de la Fuente-Arrillaga  1   5   6 , Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez  1   5   6   7 , Aline Cristine Souza Lopes  2 , Maira Bes-Rastrollo  8   5   6
Affiliations
Free article
Observational Study

Ultraprocessed food consumption and risk of overweight and obesity: the University of Navarra Follow-Up (SUN) cohort study

Raquel de Deus Mendonça et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 Nov.
Free article

Abstract

Background: Ultraprocessed food consumption has increased in the past decade. Evidence suggests a positive association between ultraprocessed food consumption and the incidence of overweight and obesity. However, few prospective studies to our knowledge have investigated this potential relation in adults.

Objective: We evaluated the association between ultraprocessed food consumption and the risk of overweight and obesity in a prospective Spanish cohort, the SUN (University of Navarra Follow-Up) study.

Design: We included 8451 middle-aged Spanish university graduates who were initially not overweight or obese and followed up for a median of 8.9 y. The consumption of ultraprocessed foods (defined as food and drink products ready to eat, drink, or heat and made predominantly or entirely from processed items extracted or refined from whole foods or synthesized in the laboratory) was assessed with the use of a validated semiquantitative 136-item food-frequency questionnaire. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate adjusted HRs and 95% CIs for incident overweight and obesity.

Results: A total of 1939 incident cases of overweight and obesity were identified during follow-up. After adjustment for potential confounders, participants in the highest quartile of ultraprocessed food consumption were at a higher risk of developing overweight or obesity (adjusted HR: 1.26; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.45; P-trend = 0.001) than those in the lowest quartile of consumption.

Conclusions: Ultraprocessed food consumption was associated with a higher risk of overweight and obesity in a prospective cohort of Spanish middle-aged adult university graduates. Further longitudinal studies are needed to confirm our results. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02669602.

Keywords: SUN cohort; food-processing industry; obesity; overweight; prospective studies; ultra-processed food.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

Associated data