Excluding whole grain-containing foods from the Nova ultraprocessed food category: a cross-sectional analysis of the impact on associations with cardiometabolic risk measures

Feb 28, 2024The American journal of clinical nutrition

How Removing Whole Grain Foods from the Ultra-Processed Category Changes Links to Heart and Metabolic Health Risks

AI simplified

Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Participants in the highest quintile of ultraprocessed food intake had a mean weight of 83.6 kg.

Higher ultraprocessed food intake is associated with increased weight, BMI, waist circumference, and weight-to-height ratio.
Excluding foods with at least 25% or 50% whole grain from the ultraprocessed food category still shows positive associations with C-reactive protein levels.
Participants in the highest quintile of ultraprocessed food intake had lower total cholesterol levels after excluding foods with at least 50% whole grain.
The associations observed indicate that high whole grain foods may not contribute significantly to negative health outcomes linked with ultraprocessed food consumption.

AI simplified

BACKGROUND: Whole grain (WG) consumption is linked with a reduced risk of chronic disease. However, the recommendations of the Nova classification system tend to contradict this evidence as high WG-containing foods, such as bread and cereals, are considered ultraprocessed, and intake is discouraged.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore associations of cardiometabolic risk measures with ultraprocessed food (UPF) intake as classified by Nova compared with when foods with ≥25% and ≥50% WG are removed from the Nova UPF category.

METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis of the 2015-18 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Nova was used to identify UPFs, and the WG Initiative's definition of a WG food and front-of-pack labeling requirements was used to identify high WG foods. Regression models were used to explore impacts on the association of UPF intake (quintiles) and cardiometabolic risk measures when high WG foods were excluded from the Nova UPF category.

RESULTS: Participants in the highest quintile of UPF intake had significantly higher weight [83.6 kg (0.8)], BMI (in kg/m) [30.6 (0.3)], waist circumference [103.1 cm (0.6)], and weight-to-height ratio [0.63 (0.003)] compared to those in the lowest quintile (P < 0.0001 for all). The same was found when foods with ≥25% and ≥50% WG were removed. Positive associations for C-reactive protein were found when ≥25% and ≥50% WG-containing foods were removed only [2.32 mg/L (0.1), P = 0.0209; 2.37 mg/L (0.1), P = 0.0179, respectively]. Participants in the highest quintile had significantly lower total cholesterol after adjustment when foods with ≥50% WG were removed [4.98 mmol/L (0.04), P = 0.0292]. Adjusted Rvalues remained relatively unchanged across each approach for all outcomes. 2 2

CONCLUSIONS: Foods high in WG may not significantly contribute to the deleterious associations previously observed between UPF intake and cardiometabolic risk factors. Consideration of their contribution to healthful dietary patterns and diet quality in the United States population should be made prior to the endorsement of Nova.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View full text (XML) ↗View full text ↗

Excluding whole grain-containing foods from the Nova ultraprocessed food category: a cross-sectional analysis of the impact on associations with cardiometabolic risk measures

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief

Abstract

Full Text

Related papers

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief