UK Toddlers Get Nearly Half Their Calories From Ultra-Processed Foods

Toddlers in the UK get a substantial and concerning portion of their calories from ultra-processed foods (UPFs), according to a new study published in the European Journal of Nutrition.

After accessing food diary data from an ongoing cohort of twin children, researchers from University College London (UCL) found that many of the toddlers were consuming a significant amount of UPFs like higher-fiber breakfast cereals, yogurts and wholegrain breads.

By the age of seven, the children’s diets had changed to include UPFs like puddings, sweet cereal products and white breads.

As the high amount of salt and sugar present in such foods is a known health risk to children, the researchers said more effective policies are needed to curb the availability and appeal of UPFs.

Upturn in UPFs

UPFs are a staple part of modern Western diets. From ice cream to white bread, instant soup to soda, these products are thought to account for 57.9% of adult US citizens’ diets. They’re often rich in saturated fat, salt and sugar, and poor in fiber and essential nutrients.

For these reasons, the foods have been blamed for increasing rates of obesity, heart disease and cancer rates in Western countries.

To help determine how prevalent the foods are in the diets of toddlers, the researchers from UCL accessed data from the UK Gemini twin cohort.

Dietary information was recorded from 2,591 children when they were 21 months old and from 592 children when they were 7 years old. Data were recorded by the parents or guardians during 2008-2009 and 2014, respectively.

The cohort included a high proportion of children from white ethnicity families with a relatively high socioeconomic status.

After analyzing the data, the researchers estimated that UPFs accounted for 46.9% of the calories eaten by the children when aged 21 months and 59.4% of the calories eaten by the children when aged 7 years. 

Common calorific UPFs eaten by the toddlers included flavored yogurts, higher-fiber breakfast cereals and wholegrain breads; the older children ate more puddings, sweet cereal products, white breads, confectionary and biscuits.

The researchers said this continuation of UPF-based diets is a concerning sign the children will carry their tastes into adulthood.

“Eating patterns in the early years are important, as they help set habits that can persist through childhood and into adulthood,” Clare Llewellyn, a professor at the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, said in a statement.

“This was reflected in our findings, with 21-month-olds who ate more ultra-processed foods also likely to be higher consumers of ultra-processed foods at the age of 7.”

Other researchers, who were not involved in the study, have echoed these concerns.

“This new work very much backs up previous research in adults showing a dietary pattern characterized by high intake of low-fiber bread, confectionary and spreadable fats and low intakes of fruits and vegetables is associated with highest risk of cardiovascular disease, and highlights the health risks if the patterns seen in these young children continue with them into adulthood,” Nerys Astbury, an associate professor of diet and obesity at the University of Oxford, said in a statement to the UK’s Science Media Center.

Reference: Conway RE, Heuchan GN, Heggie L, et al. Ultra-processed food intake in toddlerhood and mid-childhood in the UK: cross sectional and longitudinal perspectives. Eur J Nutr. 2024. doi: 10.1007/s00394-024-03496-7