Ultra-processed food consumption in pregnant women in Brazil - Study of Consumption and Eating Behavior in Pregnant Women (ECCAGe)
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 100 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 (240mL), black beans (221.2g), coffee (200mL), 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.