Ultra-Processed Food Consumption in Pregnant Women in Brazil—Study of Consumption and Eating Behavior in Pregnant Women (ECCAGe).

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Increasing consumption of ultra-processed food and decreasing consumption of healthy food have been evidenced. In pregnancy there is a lack of evidence. OBJECTIVE: To describe processed food consumption in pregnant women at primary care of two cities in south Brazil. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with data obtained from baseline of the Study of Consumption and Eating Behavior in Pregnant Women. Semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) with 88 food items, validated to use during pregnancy, was used to evaluate consumption. Twenty-six food items, consumed by less than 25% of the sample considered low consumption, were excluded. The remaining 62 items were classified according to extent of processing. Group 1: unprocessed and minimally processed food that involves minimal process. Group 2: processed culinary or food industry ingredients which includes substances extracted and purified from group 1. Group 3: ultra-processed food that involves ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat products. Crude variables were described by consumption in grams per day. The percentage of total energy intake (%TEI) for an item is hundred times the ratio between energy intake of the food and total energy intake. For data analysis, median and interquartile range were used. RESULTS: Consumption was evaluated over 712 pregnant women. The most daily consumed food were whole milk (240 mL), black beans (221.2g), coffee (200 mL), white rice (150g), orange (135.4g). Main contribution to %TEI was bread (11.2%), sugar (6.2%), whole milk (5.2%), white rice (4.8%), black beans (4.4%). The average daily food consumption of group 1 was 2,163.7 g/day, followed by group 3 (707.6 g/day) and group 2 (287.4 g/day). About caloric distribution, group 1 has the main contribution to %TEI (40.5%), followed by groups 3 (38.1%) and 2 (15.3%). CONCLUSION: An explanation for major consumption of unprocessed and minimally processed food by pregnant women is that FFQ applied contains more healthy than ultra-processed food.