Higher consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with obesity and abdominal obesity in socially vulnerable Brazilian women.

This study aimed to assess the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) and identify their association with obesity and abdominal obesity in adult women of reproductive age living in situations of social vulnerability in Maceió, Northeastern Brazil. This was a cross-sectional study carried out between October 2020 and May 2021. An anthropometric evaluation was carried out to assess obesity and abdominal obesity. A dietary assessment was also conducted using a 24-h food recall to determine the calorie intake from UPF. To estimate intra-individual variability in food consumption, the probabilistic Multiple Source Method was used. These data in the form of tertiles were used to analyse the association between the consumption of UPF and obesity and abdominal obesity. Logistic regressions were used to analyse the association. A directed acyclic graph (DAG) was created for this analysis. This study included 1702 women of which 53.7% were 31 years old or older, and 74.2% lived in poverty. It identified that 36.5% and 38.1% of the women had obesity and abdominal obesity, respectively, and that an average of 33.8% of calories consumed came from UPF. In the analysis of association guided by the DAG, it was observed that women with a high-calorie intake from UPF had a 1.3 times higher probability of being obese. It was also observed that women with a moderate and high-calorie intake from UPF were 1.4 and 1.3 times more likely, respectively, to have abdominal obesity. Thus, it can be concluded that socially vulnerable women in Brazil have a relatively high consumption of UPF and that this condition increases the probability of obesity in this population group.

The Double Burden of Malnutrition is Associated with Continued Breastfeeding and Early Consumption of Ultra-Processed Drinks in Socially Vulnerable Brazilian Children.

This study aimed to assess the association between the double burden of malnutrition (DBM) with continued breastfeeding and the early introduction of ultra-processed drinks in children living in situations of social vulnerability. This cross-sectional population-based study was carried out in a capital city in the Northeast of Brazil, which included 561 children. It was observed that introducing soft drinks into the child's diet during the first year of life was directly associated with DBM but indirectly with continuous breastfeeding for 12 or more months. These results indicate paths that can be followed to reverse the current scenario.