Research on adolescents’ eating habits revealed that certain foods such as frozen desserts, sweets, and premade pastries can be used as a gateway meal to other unhealthy foods. 43% of adolescents said they increased their intake of ultra-processed Food between 2019 and 2022 before the pandemic restrictions lifted. This is compared with 43% who reported that they had decreased their consumption in 2022 after the pandemic restrictions were lifted. 57% of the adolescents said they had decreased their intake of ultra-processed food between 2019 and 2022. (Also read: Regularly consuming ‘ultra-processed’ foods increases risk of early death )

According to research, lowering the intake of key gateway foods can have an effect on total consumption of ultra-processed food, which are high sugar, salt, unhealthy transfat, artificial flavors, and colors. Bread, cereals, sweets, sodas, and processed meats account for more than 60% in the daily calories Americans consume. Studies have shown that excessive consumption of ultraprocessed foods can cause hypertension, weight gain, heart disease risk, and premature death.

Maria Balhara (lead researcher in this study, and student at Broward College, Davie, Florida) said that ultra-processed foods were designed to be highly-palatable or engineered for addictiveness. They are also convenient and cheap, making them difficult to resist. These foods are often eaten by too many people without them realizing.”Balhara’s unique perspective on adolescents eating behavior is that she is 16, and was able to lead the study while simultaneously dual-enrolled at Broward college and Cooper City High School.

Balhara collected data about how often adolescents consumed 12 ultraprocessed foods products over the past 8 weeks. Prepackaged cookies, candy and chips were ultra-processed. There were 315 teens between the ages of 13-19 who participated in the study. They were recruited from 12 South Florida high school campuses between February 2022 to April 2022. The average BMI for participants was 22.8. This indicates a normal body weight. 56% of participants identified as white, 25.2% as Hispanic, 7.6% as black. The participants were also identified as 52.2% females, 41.6% men, 3.2% nonbinary and the rest didn’t specify their gender.

Balhara designed a survey for participants called the Processed Intake Evaluation. Balhara developed a survey called the Processed Intake Evaluation (PIE). It asked participants to assess their consumption of 12 processed foods in the 8 previous weeks in 2022. The survey also included questions to determine their 2022 consumption (after COVID 19 restrictions had been lifted) and their 2019 consumption (before COVID restrictions were put in place). The survey required students to respond to two statements: “I often drunk soda during the previous 8 weeks in 2022” (true) and “false”), as well as to indicate whether they believed or not that the statement was true.

They were asked to answer questions that could be used to calculate a PIE score between 0 and 100. 8.33 points were awarded for answers of “often”, while 0 points were given for other answers. Comparing their scores for the 2022 consumption was done with those for the 2019 pre-pandemic estimated consumption, The potential “gateway”, which could lead to increased or decreased consumption of processed foods, was found to be candy, frozen desserts and prepackaged pastries. These “gateway” foods are more likely to influence teens’ consumption of other processed foods.

The survey found that a decrease in processed meat consumption among participants led to a decrease of 8% in all other Ultraprocessed Food Consumption. A decrease in white bread consumption was associated a decrease of 9% in all other ultraprocessed food consumption. And a decrease in prepackaged cookies consumption was associated with a decrease of 10% in all other ultraprocessed food consumption.

Balhara stated, “If teenagers aren’t yet aware of the dangers of eating ultra-processed foods, they should avoid certain gateway foods like candy, pastries from stores, and frozen desserts.”

“The good news,” she says, “is that even small adjustments, such as reducing the frequency of eating certain gateway foods, can reduce your overall intake of unhealthy food and have a huge impact on your overall well-being.”

Donna K. Arnett, Ph.D., executive vice president for academic affairs, provost at University of South Carolina and former president of the American Heart Association, said, “I commend Ms. Balhara’s project, which highlights how important it is to establish good dietary habits early in life.”

The relationship between poor dietary quality, cardiovascular risk factors and poor dietary habits is well-established. Although this is only a preliminary study, it’s important to continue investigating and to help us discover ways to influence diet to promote optimal cardiovascular health in all ages.

The study was limited in its generalizability to all adolescent population and the information collected was self-reported. The PIE survey was not validated and data on health such as blood tests were not included to assess the impact of participants’ diet choices.

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The story was published without any modifications from the wire agency feed. Only the headline has changed.

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