Mechanisms of Ultra-Processed Food Contribution Potentially Linked to Adverse Health Effects
A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Clinical Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2023) | Viewed by 3881
Special Issue Editor
Interests: diabetes; chronic kidney disease; dietary advanced glycation end products; dietary phosphorus; acid-base metabolism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The consumption of ultra-processed food (UPF) is on the rise globally and is most notable in Western cultures. Currently, UPF can be found everywhere and is generally marketed with cheaper prices, popular flavors and attractive packaging, which make these products desirable to consumers. Simultaneously, more and more studies have linked high rates of consumption of UPF with serious health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and even cancer.
UPF are generally low in fiber, high in salt, sugar, and fat and usually contain multiple artificial food additives for processing. The latter are used to improve color, taste, flavor, texture, consistency, and antimicrobial activity, and to extend product shelf life, and often include many inorganic phosphate additives with these approved technical functions. The mechanical processing of UPF itself, as well as the preferred method of cooking or preparation for consumption, especially if fried or grilled with exposure to intense heat, may also lead to the increased generation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in foods. In combination or individually these characteristics, namely being low in fiber and high in salt, sugar, fat, inorganic phosphates, and AGEs, may be responsible for UPF’s significant association with adverse health effects. Awareness of the surge in UPF consumption and changes in public preference over the last several decades is growing. Understanding the mechanisms that may be involved with high consumption of UPF is of great importance to clinical nutrition and public health practice and to the development of policies which have relevance to both chronic disease conditions and the general healthy population. Such knowledge may help us to narrow the definitions in use, identifying a UPF of concern from a variety of food categories. Developing this kind of understanding could better inform healthy dietary guidelines for all.
We invite researchers and scholars in this field to submit original research articles and reviews to this Special Issue. Potential topics should be related to mechanisms which may explain the adverse health effects of UPF, to evidence of the absence of health risk, or to the specific characteristics of the food that may or may not lead to health risks. Studies from any area related to this main question will be considered.
Prof. Dr. Jaime Uribarri
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- ultra-processed foods
- ood additives
- inorganic phosphate
- AGEs
- mechanisms of disease
