Many families prefer to provide ultra-processed foods to children as long as they are quick to prepare and sold ready, but the risks are very great, this is revealed by a new study that warns of the need to change eating habits.

The researchers studied children who consumed a lot of ultra-processed foods, and the study was published in the medical journal "Current Developments in Nutrition", a monthly scientific journal specializing in nutrition, and details of the study were published on the "Academic" website. (academic.oup) this week.

The study noted in the group of older children within the sample (12 to 15 years) that those with high-risk levels of the heart muscle were those who consumed more than 200 calories from ultra-processed foods.

Ultra-processed foods and kinetic development

And in the category of the youngest children within the sample (between 3 and 5 years), it appeared that the high consumption of ultra-processed foods negatively affects the degree of motor development, as it was found that the children who obtained the lowest degrees of motor development consumed 273 calories or more from these foods compared to children with the lowest levels of motor development. Others do not consume these quantities.

The study indicated that the results may help provide effective information for families to reduce the intake of highly processed food, especially for children, in order to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, which are diseases that appear frequently in adulthood.

Many previous studies have focused on the health risks of ultra-processed foods in adults, but this is one of the first studies to link the effects of ultra-processed foods on children's fitness.

Examples of ultra-processed foods:

  • canned food

  • Ready-to-eat breakfast cereal

  • sweets

  • Soft drinks

  • sweetened juices

  • Flavored dairy with added sugar

  • canned soup

  • the pizza

  • burgers

  • Frozen chicken pieces, which are ready-made foods after a slight heating.

Previous studies - conducted on adults - showed that a diet based on ultra-processed foods would negatively affect the brain and lead to memory problems, and another study linked these foods to diabetes.