Ultra-processed foods and added sugars in the US diet: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study | BMJ Open
▻http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/3/e009892
2015
Results Ultra-processed foods comprised 57.9% of energy intake, and contributed 89.7% of the energy intake from added sugars. The content of added sugars in ultra-processed foods (21.1% of calories) was eightfold higher than in processed foods (2.4%) and fivefold higher than in unprocessed or minimally processed foods and processed culinary ingredients grouped together (3.7%). Both in unadjusted and adjusted models, each increase of 5 percentage points in proportional energy intake from ultra-processed foods increased the proportional energy intake from added sugars by 1 percentage point. Consumption of added sugars increased linearly across quintiles of ultra-processed food consumption: from 7.5% of total energy in the lowest quintile to 19.5% in the highest. A total of 82.1% of Americans in the highest quintile exceeded the recommended limit of 10% energy from added sugars, compared with 26.4% in the lowest.
Food classification according to processing
▻http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/suppl/2015/12/25/bmjopen-2015-009892.DC1/bmjopen-2015-009892supp-new.pdf