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Session: Dietary Patterns to Prevent Chronic Disease (Oral 12)

(OR12-01-24) Ultra-Processed Foods: A Ticket to Diabetes Development? Insights From the REGARDS Cohort

Sunday, June 30, 2024
10:00 AM – 10:12 AM CT
Location:  W184

    Presenting Author(s)

  • NK

    Neha Khandpur, ScD

    Assistant Professor, Division of Human Nutrition and Health
    Wageningen University
    Wageningen , Gelderland, Netherlands

    Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

    • Co-Author(s)

  • NS

    Naomi Stemerdink

    Wageningen University, Netherlands

  • YS

    Yuri Suzuki

    Wageningen University, Netherlands

  • MS

    Marinka Steur

    Researcher
    Wageningen University and Erasmus MC
    Wageningen, Gelderland, Netherlands

  • SJ

    Suzanne E. Judd

    The University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States

  • CO

    Carol Oladele

    Yale University, United States

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the association between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and incident type 2 diabetes (T2D) among ethnically diverse participants of the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Cohort in the US.

Methods: The analytical sample comprised of 10012 participants from the REGARDS cohort with an average follow-up period of 9.3 years. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) at baseline (2003-2007). Ultra-processed foods and beverages were classified according to the Nova system. Demographics, lifestyle, and medical history were self-reported via questionnaires. The primary outcome was self-reported T2D, collected at the second in-home visit (2013-2017). We used Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for age, gender, race, education level, income, total energy, alcohol intake, smoking status, and physical activity level to estimate the associations of quartiles of ultra-processed consumption (% of total kcal from UPF) and T2D.

Results: During 92,700 person-years of follow-up, there were 1273 cases of incident T2D. In the fully adjusted model, we found a modest but non-significant association between ultra-processed food intake with risk of T2D, for participants in the highest quartile of ultra-processed food intake, compared to participants in the lowest quartile (HR= 1.14; 95%CI 0.97 - 1.34). No strong evidence for effect modification by race or region was found. Additionally, no evidence of an association was found in sensitivity analysis where alternate metrics were used to capture ultra-processed food intake (% grams).

Conclusions: Contrary to our hypothesis, our preliminary results found no support of an increase in risk of T2D with a higher intake of ultra-processed foods in this sample of US participants. Further research within this cohort is warranted to clarify these findings.

Funding Sources: N/A