Ultra-processed food consumption in Argentina according to income level and its association with the intake of healthy foods.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are associated with unhealthy diets and chronic diseases. Hence, knowing the consumption pattern of UPFs in the general population is crucial to design policies to improve public health, such as the recently approved law for the Promotion of Healthy Eating in Argentina (Law N° 27.642). The aim of the study was to characterise the consumption of UPFs according to income level and to assess their association with the intake of healthy foods in the Argentinian population. Healthy foods were defined in this study as those non-UPF groups that have been shown to reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases and excluded certain natural or minimally processed foods such as red meat, poultry and eggs. We retrieved data from the 2018-2019 National Nutrition and Health Survey (ENNyS 2), a cross-sectional, nationally representative survey performed in Argentina, including 15 595 inhabitants. We classified the 1040 food items recorded by the degree of processing using the NOVA system. UPFs represented nearly 26% of daily energy. The intake of UPFs increased with income, with a difference of up to 5 percentage points between the lowest (24%) and the highest (29%) income levels (p < 0.001). Cookies, industrial pastries, cakes and sugar-sweetened beverages were the most consumed UPF items, accounting for 10% of daily energy intake. We found that UPF intake was associated with a decrease in consumption of healthy food groups, mainly fruits and vegetables, where a difference of -28.3 g/2000 kcal and -62.3 g/2000 kcal between tertile 1 and tertile 3 was estimated, respectively. Therefore, Argentina still maintains a UPF consumption pattern of a low- and middle-income country, where UPF intake increases with income, but these foods also compete with the intake of healthy foods.

Ultra-processed foods consumption and diet quality among preschool children and women of reproductive age from Argentina.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) and diet quality among preschool children and women of reproductive age from Argentina. DESIGN: Cross-sectional and nationally representative survey. The food items were classified according to the NOVA system. Consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and wholegrains was estimated, and the energy and nutrients related to non-communicable disease (NCD) intake. Linear regression was used to assess the associations. SETTING: Argentina. PARTICIPANTS: Children aged 2-5 years (n 7022), female adolescent aged 10-19 years (n 2165) and women aged 20-49 years (n 4414). RESULTS: UPF represented more than a quarter of total energy intake, 27 % in children, 31 % in female adolescents and 26 % in women. Across all age groups, the major contributors to UPF consumption were cookies and pastries (about 6·0-7·0 %), soft drinks (about 2·7-3·7 %), candies (about 1·8-4·6 %), and juices (about 1·3-1·7 %). The consumption of fresh vegetables, fresh fruits and legumes was negatively associated with UPF consumption. A significant positive association was found between the dietary share of UPF and the dietary content of NCD-promoting nutrients such as free sugars and total saturated and trans-fats. In contrast, a significant negative association was found with the content of NCD-protective such as fibre and protein. CONCLUSIONS: UPF were associated with lower consumption of healthy foods and higher intake of nutrients related to NCD in children and women of reproductive age in Argentina. It is necessary to design food policies that simultaneously reduce the consumption of UPF while promoting the intake of fresh and whole foods to improve the dietary quality.

Spatial patterns of nutrients balance of major crops in Argentina.

Argentina has a long tradition of agricultural systems that use few amounts of fertilizers. However, the crop nutrient balance remains unknown throughout the country. In this study, we estimated the nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S) balance at national and subnational scale of the six major grain crops: soybean, maize, wheat, sunflower, barley and sorghum. We found a negative spatio-temporal NPS balance with an annual average deficit of -22.4 kg ha-1 year-1 for N, -6.9 kg ha-1 year-1 for P and -2.1 kg ha-1 year-1 for S. Considering the whole agricultural area analyzed, the balance represented a mean annual negative net outflow of 612 thousand tons (kT) of N, 166 kT of P and 58 kT of S. The nutrient balance was not homogeneous across the country, with significant differences among the three major productive regions: i) the Pampean nucleus region (-32.2, -8.5, -2.92 kg ha-1 year-1, for N, P and S respectively) ii) the non-nucleus Pampean region (-14.3, -3.7, -2.03 kg ha-1 year-1 for N, P and S respectively), and iii) extra-Pampean region (-22.4, -6.3, -2.13 kg ha-1 year-1 for N, P and S respectively). Remarkably, despite having the highest N and P application rate, the Pampean nucleus region has the largest deficit of the analyzed nutrients. Soybean was the main driver of the nutrient mining in the country, accounting for 62 % of the NPS deficits at national scale (-418 kT N year-1, -120 kT P year-1 and -35 kT S year-1). Our findings suggest that the current fertilization practices applied to the major extensive crops in Argentina are far from being sufficient to supply the nutrients they demand, even cultivating soybean that is a N-fixing crop. These results highlight that Argentine main crops' high productivity is reached at the expense of soil nutrient depletion.

The health, environmental, and economic dimensions of future dietary transitions in Argentina.

Diets link human health with environmental sustainability, offering promising pressure points to enhance the sustainability of food systems. We investigated the health, environmental, and economic dimensions of the current diet in Argentina and the possible effects of six dietary change scenarios on nutrient adequacy, dietary quality, food expenditure, and six environmental impact categories (i.e., GHG emissions, total land occupation, cropland use, fossil energy use, freshwater consumption, and the emission of eutrophying pollutants). Current dietary patterns are unhealthy, unsustainable, and relatively expensive, and all things being equal, an increase in income levels would not alter the health dimension, but increase environmental impacts by 33-38%, and costs by 38%. Compared to the prevailing diet, the six healthier diet alternatives could improve health with an expenditure between + 27% (National Dietary Guidelines) to -5% (vegan diet) of the current diet. These dietary changes could result in trade-offs between different environmental impacts. Plant-based diets showed the lowest overall environmental impact, with GHG emissions and land occupation reduced by up to 79% and 88%, respectively, without significant changes in cropland demand. However, fossil energy use and freshwater consumption could increase by up to 101% and 220%, respectively. The emission of eutrophying pollutants could increase by up to 54% for all healthy diet scenarios, except for the vegan one (18% decrease). We conclude that the health and environmental crisis that Argentina (and other developing countries) currently face could be mitigated by adopting healthy diets (particularly plant-based), bringing in the process benefits to both people and nature. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11625-021-01087-7.

Quality and environmental footprints of diets by socio-economic status in Argentina.

Food consumption and production plays a major role on human health and environmental sustainability. In addition, socio-economic status (SES) could be an important determinant on these impacts. Here we investigated the quality and environmental footprints of diets of different SES in Argentina. Dietary data was obtained from a recent national-wide representative survey (21,547 households), and individual intake was estimated by applying the Adult-Male Equivalent (AME) approach. Dietary quality was assessed by comparing the apparent consumption of foods and nutrients with the level of intake associated with the lowest risk of mortality, and applying the Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010 (AHEI-2010). The environmental footprints were assessed with a set of six environmental indicators: greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, total land occupation, cropland demand, fossil energy use, freshwater consumption and eutrophying emissions. Per capita total expenditure was utilized as an indicator of SES. We found a suboptimal intake of healthy and excess of unhealthy foods and nutrients in all SES, as well as a low AHEI-2010 score (34.7 ± 3.56 over 100). Regarding environmental footprints per AME, we estimated 8.91 ± 2.49 kg CO2-eq/day for GHG emissions, 9.30 ± 2.93 MJ/day for fossil energy use, 54.2 ± 14.8 m2/day for total land occupation, 7.07 ± 1.90 m2/day for cropland demand, 205 ± 65.3 L/day for freshwater consumption and 19.8 ± 6.43 g PO4-eq/day for eutrophying emissions. The Argentinian diet was found to be both unhealthy and unsustainable in all socio-economic levels.

Energy and carbon footprints of chicken and pork from intensive production systems in Argentina.

Due to the heterogeneity and complexity of food systems, there is a need to increase the knowledge on environmental impacts of regional productions by performing studies in a transparent manner, so that researchers could compare and accurately adapt such data to assess mitigation strategies. With the exception of beef, chicken and pork are the most consumed meats in Argentina and their consumption is expected to continuing increasing. However, despite the growing importance of chicken and pork industry, no studies on environmental impact of these products have been conducted to date in this country. Performing a life cycle inventory with data derived from government statistical publications, academia and communications with industry, the present study aims to investigate the energy and carbon footprints per ton of live weight (LW) of chickens and pigs from intensive production systems at farm gate in Argentina. In addition, we discussed in detail the effects on energy and carbon footprints of two animal diets which comprise different soybean by-products commonly used in animal husbandry, namely expeller-extruded soybean meal and solvent-extracted soybean meal and oil. We found that the energy and carbon footprint at farm gate for chicken was 13.6-15.1 GJ/ton LW and 2.03-2.22 ton CO2-eq/ton LW, for pigs in hoop systems 23.2-24.0 GJ/ton LW and 5.14-5.17 ton CO2-eq/ton LW, and for pigs in confinement systems 23.6-24.2 GJ/ton LW and 6.06-6.45 ton CO2-eq/ton LW, respectively. The choice of expeller-extruded soybean meal or solvent-extracted soybean meal and oil as feed ingredients showed small differences on the energy and carbon footprints of chickens and pigs.