Ultra-processed foods consumption as a promoting factor of greenhouse gas emissions, water, energy, and land use: A longitudinal assessment.

Background: Dietary patterns can produce an environmental impact. Changes in people's diet, such as the increased consumption of ultra-processed food (UPF) can not only influence human health but also environment sustainability.
Objectives: Assessment of the impact of 2-year changes in UPF consumption on greenhouse gas emissions and water, energy and land use.
Design: A 2-year longitudinal study after a dietary intervention including 5879 participants from a Southern European population between the ages of 55-75 years with metabolic syndrome.
Methods: Food intake was assessed using a validated 143-item food frequency questionnaire, which allowed classifying foods according to the NOVA system. In addition, sociodemographic data, Mediterranean diet adherence, and physical activity were obtained from validated questionnaires. Greenhouse gas emissions, water, energy and land use were calculated by means of the Agribalyse® 3.0.1 database of environmental impact indicators for food items. Changes in UPF consumption during a 2-year period were analyzed. Statistical analyses were conducted using computed General Linear Models.
Results: Participants with major reductions in their UPF consumption reduced their impact by -0.6 kg of CO ₂ eq and -5.3 MJ of energy. Water use was the only factor that increased as the percentage of UPF was reduced.
Conclusions: Low consumption of ultra-processed foods may contribute to environmental sustainability. The processing level of the consumed food should be considered not only for nutritional advice on health but also for environmental protection.
Trial Registration: ISRCTN, ISRCTN89898870. Registered 05 September 2013, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN89898870.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest This work was supported by the official Spanish Institutions for funding scientific biomedical research, CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), through the Fondo de Investigación para la Salud (FIS), which is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (six coordinated FIS projects leaded by JS-S and JVi, including the following projects: PI13/00673, PI13/00492, PI13/00272, PI13/01123, PI13/00462, PI13/00233, PI13/02184, PI13/00728, PI13/01090, PI13/01056, PI14/01722, PI14/00636, PI14/00618, PI14/00696, PI14/01206, PI14/01919, PI14/00853, PI14/01374, PI14/00972, PI14/00728, PI14/01471, PI16/00473, PI16/00662, PI16/01873, PI16/01094, PI16/00501, PI16/00533, PI16/00381, PI16/00366, PI16/01522, PI16/01120, PI17/00764, PI17/01183, PI17/00855, PI17/01347, PI17/00525, PI17/01827, PI17/00532, PI17/00215, PI17/01441, PI17/00508, PI17/01732, PI17/00926, PI19/00957, PI19/00386, PI19/00309, PI19/01032, PI19/00576, PI19/00017, PI19/01226, PI19/00781, PI19/01560, PI19/01332, PI20/01802, PI20/00138, PI20/01532, PI20/00456, PI20/00339, PI20/00557, PI20/00886, PI20/01158); the Especial Action Project entitled: Implementación y evaluación de una intervención intensiva sobre la actividad física Cohorte PREDIMED-Plus grant to JS-S; the European Research Council (Advanced Research Grant 2014–2019; agreement #340918) granted to MÁM-G.; the Recercaixa (number 2013ACUP00194) grant to JS-S; grants from the Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (PI0458/2013, PS0358/2016, PI0137/2018); the PROMETEO/2017/017 and the AICO/2021/347 grants from the Generalitat Valenciana; the SEMERGEN grant. J.S-S is partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme. C.B. was granted by Juan de la Cierva grant. P.M.G. was granted by the Specialist Postdoctoral program of the Consejería de Salud y Familias, Junta de Andalucía (Spain). None of the funding sources took part in the design, collection, analysis, interpretation of the data, or writing the report, or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. J.S.-S. reported receiving research support from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, the European Commission, the USA National Institutes of Health; receiving consulting fees or travel expenses from Eroski Foundation and Instituto Danone, receiving nonfinancial support from Hojiblanca, Patrimonio Comunal Olivarero, the California Almond Board of California, Pistachio Growers and Borges S.A; serving on the board of and receiving grant support through his institution from the International Nut and Dried Foundation and the Eroski Foundation; and personal fees from Instituto Danone Spain; Serving in the Board of Danone Institute International. D.C. reported receiving grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III. R.E. reported receiving grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fundación Dieta Meditarránea and Cerveza y Salud and olive oil for the trial from Fundación Patrimonio Comunal Olivarero and personal fees from Brewers of Europe, Fundación Cerveza y Salud, Interprofesional del Aceite de Oliva, Instituto Cervantes in Albuquerque, Milano and Tokyo, Pernod Ricard, Fundación Dieta Mediterránea (Spain), Wine and Culinary International Forum and Lilly Laboratories; non-financial support from Sociedad Española de Nutrición and Fundación Bosch y Gimpera; and grants from Uriach Laboratories. The rest of the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
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