4.7 Article

Some Ultra-Processed Foods Are Needed for Nutrient Adequate Diets: Linear Programming Analyses of the Seattle Obesity Study

Journal

NUTRIENTS
Volume 13, Issue 11, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/nu13113838

Keywords

food patterns; diet quality; ultra-processed foods; linear programming; SOS III

Funding

  1. National Institutes of Health [R01 DK076608]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

The study shows that various foods from all categories can contribute to a nutritionally adequate diet, with ultra-processed foods being the main sources of added sugar, saturated fat, and sodium, as well as playing important roles in certain vitamins and minerals. Optimized dietary patterns generated using linear programming models are more balanced in fat, sugar, and salt intake compared to the mean, while also providing more vegetables.
Typical diets include an assortment of unprocessed, processed, and ultra-processed foods, along with culinary ingredients. Linear programming (LP) can be used to generate nutritionally adequate food patterns that meet pre-defined nutrient guidelines. The present LP models were set to satisfy 22 nutrient standards, while minimizing deviation from the mean observed diet of the Seattle Obesity Study (SOS III) sample. Component foods from the Fred Hutch food frequency questionnaire comprised the market basket. LP models generated optimized 2000 kcal food patterns by selecting from all foods, unprocessed foods only, ultra-processed foods only, or some other combination. Optimized patterns created using all foods contained less fat, sugar, and salt, and more vegetables compared to the SOS III mean. Ultra-processed foods were the main sources of added sugar, saturated fat and sodium. Ultra-processed foods also contributed most vitamin E, thiamin, niacin, folate, and calcium, and were the main sources of plant protein. LP models failed to create optimal diets using unprocessed foods only and ultra-processed foods only: no mathematical solution was obtained. Relaxing the vitamin D criterion led to optimized diets based on unprocessed or ultra-processed foods only. However, food patterns created using unprocessed foods were significantly more expensive compared to those created using foods in the ultra-processed category. This work demonstrates that foods from all NOVA categories can contribute to a nutritionally adequate diet.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available