Consumo de alimentos ultraprocessados na gestação: influência nas medidas antropométricas do bebê

Abstract

Introduction: The influence of ultra-processed foods (UPF) consumption during pregnancy on baby's anthropometric outcomes is still poorly understood. Objective: to investigate the influence of UPF consumption during pregnancy on baby's anthropometric measurements. Methods: a systematic review and a prospective cohort study with mothers and their babies were carried out in two moments: immediate postpartum and six months postpartum. For the review, cohort and cross-sectional studies were researched in BVS, Cinahl, Cochrane, Embase, Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Science databases, with no restrictions of the evaluated period of time, until March/2020. The main descriptors were: Pregnant Women, Ultra-processed foods, Birth Weight, Small for Gestational Age, Infant, and Newborn. In the cohort at the first moment, socioeconomic, demographic, anthropometric, and obstetric information, food consumption and prenatal and maternal lifestyle data were obtained in addition to the weight, length, head circumference and gestational age of the newborns. At six months, anthropometric data of mothers and children were obtained. The percentage of energy related to the UPF was estimated and categorized into tertiles and associated with the anthropometric data of the babies through multinomial and binary logistic regression. Results: In the review, 17 articles were considered eligible. The results showed: 36 non-significant associations between the exposures and the outcomes; 13 direct associations (outcomes versus ultraprocessed dietary patterns, soft drinks, artificially sweetened beverages, sweets, junk food) and 5 inverse associations (outcomes versus ultraprocessed dietary patterns, soft drinks). In the cohort, at post-partum, 626 puerperal mothers and children were evaluated and, at six months, anthropometric data from 291 children were obtained. The average caloric percentage from the consumption of UPF during pregnancy (n=626) was 30.56%. In the unadjusted regression, there was a greater chance of insufficient birth weight among children of mothers classified in the highest tertile of UPF consumption (OR=1.72 95%CI 1.09-2.70; p=0.020). This association was not maintained after adjustments for confounding variables. At six months, there was no association between UPF consumption and babies' anthropometric indices (p>0.05). Conclusion: most of the evaluated literature did not demonstrate the influence of UPF consumption during pregnancy on the anthropometric measurements of the newborn up to one year and denoted a smaller number of direct and inverse associations between the exposures and the outcomes. Similarly, in the cohort, there was no association between the consumption of AUP during pregnancy and the anthropometric outcomes of the baby, at birth and six months postpartum, probably due to the multifactorial nature of anthropometry and the interference of sociodemographic, gestational and environmental factors in the outcomes.