SynthesisThe Journal of nutrition2023
Unhealthy Food and Beverage Consumption during Childhood and Risk of Cardiometabolic Disease: A Systematic Review of Prospective Cohort Studies.
Synthesis in The Journal of nutrition, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Universal Subconstructs of a Healthy Diet for Children and Adolescents: A Critical Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Pooled it
- The Association Between Consumption of Foods/Food Groups and the Risk of Overweight/Obesity and Metabolically Unhealthy Obesity in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- An Infant Diet Score Based on Health Records Is Associated With BMI: A Nationwide Mother-Child Cohort Study in Iceland (ICE-MCH).Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Article
- Associations between the trajectories of free sugar intake and cardiometabolic risk markers during childhood: generation XXI birth cohort.European journal of nutrition · 2025Article
- Childhood Obesity: A Narrative Review.Cureus · 2025Review
- Comparison between national and PAHO criteria for assessing the nutritional profile of foods intended for children aged 0-3 years marketed in Lima, Peru.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Children Living in Northeastern Brazil.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Age of Juice Introduction and Cardiometabolic Outcomes in Middle Childhood.The Journal of nutrition · 2024Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundGlobal consumption of unhealthy foods, including ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), has increased substantially among pediatric populations. Suboptimal diet during early life can track into adulthood, alongside risk factors for cardiometabolic disease.
objectiveTo inform the development of updated WHO guiding principles for complementary feeding of infants and young children, this systematic review sought to examine the association between unhealthy food consumption during childhood and cardiometabolic risk biomarkers.
methodsPubMed (Medline), EMBASE, and Cochrane CENTRAL were systematically searched, with no language restriction, up to 10 March 2022. Inclusion criteria were randomized controlled trials (RCTs), non-RCTs, and longitudinal cohort studies; children aged ≤10.9 y at exposure; studies reporting greater consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages (defined using nutrient- and food-based approaches) than no or low consumption; studies assessing critical nonanthropometric cardiometabolic disease risk outcomes (blood lipid profile, glycemic control, or blood pressure).
resultsOf 30,021 identified citations, 11 articles from 8 longitudinal cohort studies were included. Six studies focused on exposure to unhealthy foods or UPF, and 4 focused on SSB only. Methodological heterogeneity was too high across studies to meta-analyze effect estimates. A narrative synthesis of quantitative data revealed that exposure to unhealthy foods and beverages, specifically NOVA-defined UPF, in children of preschool age may be associated with a worse blood lipid and blood pressure profile in later childhood (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation [GRADE]: low and very low certainty, respectively). No associations were evident between SSB consumption and blood lipids, glycemic control, or blood pressure (GRADE: all low certainty).
conclusionsNo definitive conclusion can be made because of quality of the data. More high-quality studies that purposefully assess the effects of unhealthy food and beverage exposure during childhood on cardiometabolic risk outcomes are needed. This protocol was registered at https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/ as CRD42020218109.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.