Sao Paula: Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo have calculated the impact of adolescents consuming ultra-processed foods on the risk of obesity.
The findings of the study were published in the journal, 'Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics'.
There are 3,587 adolescents aged 12-19 who took part in the 2011-16 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). They divided participants in the study into three groups according to the amount of ultra-processed foods consumed.
When they compared those with the highest level (64 per cent of total diet by weight on average) with those with the lowest level (18.5 per cent), they found that the former were 45 per cent more likely to be obese, 52 per cent more likely to have abdominal obesity (excess fat around the waist) and, most alarmingly, 63 per cent more likely to have visceral obesity (excess fat on and around the abdominal organs, including the liver and intestines), which correlates closely with the development of high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia (high cholesterol), and a heightened risk of death.
—ANI
