SynthesisFrontiers in nutrition2023
Ultra-processed food consumption and increased risk of metabolic syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.
Synthesis in Frontiers in nutrition, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 4 of them syntheses 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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Ultra-Processed Food Intakes and Health Outcomes in Adults Older Than 60 Years: A Systematic Review.Nutrition reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence and determinants of metabolic syndrome among type2 diabetic patients using different diagnosis criteria in ethiopia: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Pooled it
- Ultra-processed food consumption and metabolic disease risk: an umbrella review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses of observational studies.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Pooled it
- Dietary Inflammatory Potential and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in School-Aged Adolescents.Pediatric obesity · 2026Article
- Contribution of Nova-classified ultraprocessed foods to energy and nutrient intakes in very old people: the Newcastle 85+ Study.BMJ open · 2026Observational
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- Article
- Nutritional status and cancer survival among rural Chinese women: biological mechanisms, health disparities, and translational opportunities.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Is obesity the missing link? Ultra-processed foods and metabolic and reproductive outcomes: a narrative review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- How to evaluate ultra-processed food intake in pediatrics? UPF score: an easy alternative.BMC nutrition · 2025Article
- The association between ultra-processed foods intake and the odds of prostate cancer: a case-control study.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Article
- Psychometric evaluation of a novel measure of trauma-related eating to cope.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2025Article
- Adequate Food and Nutrition in School: Acceptability and Consumption by Students of a Brazilian Municipality.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Healthy dietary patterns and ovarian cancer risk and survival: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- U-shaped association between ultra-processed food intake and overactive bladder in US adults: a national cross-sectional study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Ultra-processed food intake in relation to metabolic health status in Iranian adolescents with overweight and obesity.Nutrition & metabolism · 2024Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Although higher consumption of ultra-processed food (UPF) has been linked to a higher risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS), the results remain controversial. Herein, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies to clarify the relationship between UPF consumption defined by the NOVA framework and risk of MetS. Methods: An extensive literature search on PubMed, ISI Web of Science, EBSCO and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases was conducted to search for the relevant articles published priori to January 2023, and newly published articles between January 2023 and March 2023 were re-searched. Random-effects or fixed-effects models were adopted to calculate the pooled relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The between-study heterogeneity was explored using the Cochran's Q test and I-square (I Results: Nine studies (six cross-sectional and three prospective cohort studies) totaling 23,500 participants with 6,192 MetS cases were included in the final analysis. The pooled effect size for the highest vs. lowest categories of UPF consumption indicated a positive association with the risk of MetS (RR: 1.25, 95%CI: 1.09-1.42, Conclusions: Our findings suggest that higher consumption of UPF is significantly associated with an increased risk of MetS. Further longitudinal studies are needed to confirm the effect of UPF consumption on MetS.
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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.