Research
Energy balance
From 1999 to 2018, the estimated percentage of total energy from consumption of ultraprocessed foods increased from 61.4% to 67.0%.
Practitioners should be aware of the increasing trend in ultraprocessed food consumption among youths.
StrongSupportsmedium confidence
From 1999 to 2018, the estimated percentage of total energy from consumption of ultraprocessed foods increased from 61.4% to 67.0% (difference, 5.6% [95% CI, 3.5% to 7.7%]; P < .001 for trend).
Why this rating
Based on a large cross-sectional analysis of NHANES data.
Source
Trends in Consumption of Ultraprocessed Foods Among US Youths Aged 2-19 Years, 1999-2018
Lu Wang et al. · JAMA · 2021
DOI 10.1001/jama.2021.10238
cross-sectional · n=33795Cited 356×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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- The percentage of total energy from consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods decreased from 28.8% to 23.5% from 1999 to 2018.Strong
- There was a significantly larger increase in the estimated percentage of energy from ultraprocessed foods among non-Hispanic Black youths and Mexican American youths compared to non-Hispanic White youths.Strong
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