Associations between ultra-processed food and drink consumption and biomarkers of chronic low-grade inflammation: exploring the mediating role of adiposity

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dc.contributor.authorMillar, Seán R.en
dc.contributor.authorHarrington, Janas M.en
dc.contributor.authorPerry, Ivan J.en
dc.contributor.authorPhillips, Catherine M.en
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-13T08:54:19Z
dc.date.available2025-05-13T08:54:19Z
dc.date.issued2025en
dc.description.abstractPURPOSE: Higher ultra-processed food and drink (UPFD) consumption has been linked with increased risk of non-communicable diseases. Low-grade systemic inflammation may partly underlie this relationship, yet limited research on UPFDs exists in this context. We examined UPFD associations with inflammatory biomarkers and explored whether relationships are mediated by adiposity. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 1,986 middle- to older-aged men and women. Using the NOVA classification, UPFD weight ratios were calculated for each participant. Correlation and multivariate-adjusted linear regression analyses were used to test UPFD intake associations with a wide range of inflammatory biomarkers. Mediation analyses explored whether relationships were independent or mediated by adiposity, defined by body mass index (BMI) or waist-height ratio (WHtR). RESULTS: Significant direct effects between UPFD consumption and higher levels of interleukin 6, tumour necrosis factor-alpha, white blood cell counts and constituent neutrophils, basophils, and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, were observed in models which controlled for a range of potential confounders, and which additionally adjusted for BMI or WHtR. Higher levels of adiposity were found to mediate relationships between UPFD intake and biomarkers, with the percentage of total effect mediated ranging from 12.7 to 70.1% for models including BMI, and 13.5 to 64.5% for models including WHtR. CONCLUSIONS: Consumption of UPFDs is associated with a less optimal inflammatory biomarker profile and the total effect of UPFD intake on biomarker concentrations is likely due both to higher levels of adiposity related to UPFD consumption and the pro-inflammatory potential of UPFD products.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleid150
dc.identifier.citationMillar, S. R., Harrington, J. M., Perry, I. J. and Phillips, C. M. (2025) 'Associations between ultra-processed food and drink consumption and biomarkers of chronic low-grade inflammation: exploring the mediating role of adiposity', European Journal of Nutrition, 64(4), 150 (12pp). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-025-03666-1en
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s00394-025-03666-1en
dc.identifier.endpage12
dc.identifier.issn14366215en
dc.identifier.issued4
dc.identifier.journaltitleEuropean Journal of Nutritionen
dc.identifier.startpage1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/17435
dc.identifier.volume64
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherSpringer Natureen
dc.rights© 2025, the Author(s). Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectAdiposityen
dc.subjectLow-grade inflammationen
dc.subjectUltra-processed drinksen
dc.subjectUltra-processed foodsen
dc.titleAssociations between ultra-processed food and drink consumption and biomarkers of chronic low-grade inflammation: exploring the mediating role of adiposityen
dc.typeArticle (peer reviewed)en
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