» Consumption of ultraprocessed foods, or UPF, is independently tied to chronic insomnia in the general population, according to a study recently published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Pauline Duquenne, from Sorbonne Paris Nord University, and colleagues examined the association between UPF intake and chronic insomnia in a large population-based sample. The analysis included 38,570 adults who had completed a sleep questionnaire in 2014 and at least two 24-hour dietary records.
The researchers found that 19.4% of participants had symptoms of chronic insomnia, and on average, UPF represented 16% of overall dietary intake. UPF consumption was associated with higher odds of chronic insomnia in an adjusted analysis (odds ratio for an absolute 10% greater UPF intake in the diet, 1.06), with greater odds seen for men (odds ratio, 1.09) than women (odds ratio, 1.05).
» From 1999 to 2020, diet quality improved among US adults, according to a study published online June 18 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Junxiu Liu, PhD, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, from Tufts University in Boston, examined trends in diet quality by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic disadvantage among noninstitutionalized adults aged 20 or more years who responded to the 1999 to 2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
The researchers found that from 1999 to 2020, there was a decrease in the proportion of US adults with poor diet quality (from 48.8 to 37.4%), whereas increases were seen in the proportion with intermediate quality and ideal quality (from 50.6 to 61.1% and from 0.66 to 1.58%, respectively).
» A higher Planetary Health Diet Index, or PHDI, is associated with a lower risk for total and cause-specific mortality, according to a study published online June 10 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. A total of 31,330 deaths were documented among women and 23,206 among men during up to 34 years of follow-up. The PHDI was associated with a lower risk for death from cancer and cardiovascular, respiratory and neurodegenerative diseases.
