Presented by Lyn Steffen, PhD
Associate Professor
Division of Epidemiology & Community Health, School of Public Health

Overweight and obesity have been increasing over the four past decades with linkage between excess body weight and coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes (T2D) and premature death. Concomitantly, since the 1950’s, the number of processed food products appearing on grocery store shelves and the number of fast food restaurants in the US increased over 200%. To better understand the influence of processed food and beverage intakes on obesity-related conditions, several food classification frameworks have been developed. The most frequently published framework is called ‘NOVA’. The original classification system consists of three categories: 1) unprocessed/minimally processed foods (i.e., fresh or frozen unprocessed or minimally processed meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, etc.), 2) processed ingredients (i.e., sugar, flour, salt, vegetable oil, etc.), and 3) ultra-processed foods (UPFs) (i.e., fast foods; sugar-sweetened beverages; diet beverages; frozen entrees, soups, and vegetables with sauces; deli-prepared foods; canned or bottled sauces, soups, and legumes; packaged or commercially- prepared whole grain and refined grain bread, ready-to-eat cereals, cakes, cookies, pies, donuts, etc.). UPFs are rich in calories, added sugar, fat, sodium, and/or food additives. In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2012, U.S. adults reportedly consumed almost 60% of calories from UPFs (foods and beverage intakes grouped into NOVA categories). Several cross-sectional studies have shown UPFs positively related to obesity, but not cardiometabolic outcomes. The objective of this prospective study is to examine the associations of processed food intake with cardiometabolic risk factors and adipose tissue depots in adults enrolled in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adult (CARDIA) study.

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