America's packaged food supply is ultra-processed

美国的包装食品属于过度加工食品

© Piman Khrutmuang / Adobe Stock

上海译锐翻译   2019-7-26    15:38 p.m.

Americans are overexposed to products that are high in energy, saturated fat, sugar and salt, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study that reports the United States packaged food and beverage supply in 2018 was ultra-processed and generally unhealthy.

根据《西北医学》上的一项新研究，美国人过度接触高热量、高饱和脂肪以及高糖和高盐食品。据该项新研究介绍，美国2018年的包装食品和饮料均为过度加工食品且总体而言对健康不利。

saturated fat：饱和脂肪

Since about 80% of Americans' total calorie consumption comes from store-bought foods and beverages (packaged and unpackaged), the food and beverage supply plays a central role in the development of chronic disease including obesity and cardiovascular disease.

由于大约80%的美国人所摄入的总卡路里来自于从商店购买到的食品和饮料（既包括包装食品和非包装制品），食品和饮料供应在慢性疾病，包括肥胖和心血管疾病的形成方面发挥着至关重要的作用。

chronic disease：慢性病

cardiovascular disease：心血管疾病

The study was published today, July 24, in the journal Nutrients. It aims to provide new information for consumers, researchers and policymakers to encourage food manufacturers to reformulate or replace unhealthy products and to inform the U.S. government on where action may be needed to improve the healthfulness of the U.S. packaged food and beverage supply.

研究结果于今天，即7月24日在《营养物》（Nutrients）杂志发表。该研究旨在为消费者、研究人员以及政策制定者提供新的信息，以鼓励食品制造商能够重新调整食品配方或撤换不健康的食品，并帮助美国政府了解在哪些方面可能需要采取行动以改善美国包装食品和饮料的健康程度。

"To say that our food supply is highly processed won't shock anyone, but it's important that we hold food and beverage manufacturers accountable by continually documenting how they're doing in terms of providing healthy foods for consumers," said lead author Abigail Baldridge, a biostatistician in the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "And the verdict is they can and should be doing a whole lot better."

文章首席作者，西北大学芬伯格医学院预防医学系的生物统计学家Abigail Baldridge表示：”如果说起我们的食品属于过度加工食品，那么没有人会感到吃惊。但是重要的是，我们应该通过不断将食品和饮料生产商在提供健康食品方面的做法记入档案的方式让他们为健康食品和饮料负责。这样做的结论就是这些食品制造商能够并且应该做的更好。“

As classified by the NOVA Food Classification System developed at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, "ultra-processed food and beverages" is the fourth and final group of foods that "are industrial formulations made entirely or mostly from substances extracted from foods (oils, fats, sugar, starch and proteins)." They are derived from hydrogenated fats and modified starch, and are synthesized in laboratories.

根据巴西圣保罗大学所制定的NOVA食品分类体系，”过度加工的食品和饮料“是第四，同时也是最后一类食品。这类食品都是”工业配方，并且所有或绝大多数的成分都萃取自食品，比如油、脂肪、糖、淀粉和蛋白质。这些物质均萃取自氢化脂肪和变性淀粉并且在实验室内合成。“

The scientists analyzed 230,156 products and, using the NOVA classification system, found 71% of products such as bread, salad dressings, snack foods, sweets, sugary drinks and more were ultra-processed. Among the top 25 manufacturers by sales volume, 86% of products were classified as ultra-processed.

科学家们使用NOVA分类系统对230,156种食品进行了分析，并发现71%的食品，比如面包、沙拉酱、零食、糖果、含糖饮料等都属于过度加工食品。在销售额排名前25的食品生产商中，86%的食品被归类为过度加工食品。

salad dressings：沙拉酱

"Bread and bakery products" was the only category consistently among the highest third across all four nutrient categories in terms of nutrient levels (calories, saturated fat, total sugars and sodium).

“面包和烘焙食品”是四种营养类别中唯一一类在营养水平方面（卡路里、饱和脂肪、糖和钠总量）稳步排名在第三高的食品。

Compared to other western countries like Australia, the U.S. food supply is similarly healthy but more processed with higher median sugar and sodium content, the study found.

研究发现，与其他西方国家，比如澳大利亚相比，美国的食品同样是健康的，但是加工程度更高，糖和钠和含量也更高。

Dietary guidelines are routinely updated, but no such regular surveillance or reporting on what is available on grocery shelves is available to consumers, researchers or policy makers. Changing the food supply must start with properly assessing it, Baldridge said.

Baldridge表示：“饮食指南会定期更新，但是商店货架上却没有可以提供给消费者、研究人员或政策制定者针对商品的该类定期监督或报告。改变食品供应必须先从合理评估食品开始。”

"Food and beverage products continuously evolve, and reports like these highlight opportunities to make critical changes within specific manufacturers or product categories to reduce saturated fat, salt and sugars," Baldridge said.

Baldridge表示：”食品和饮料处于不断演变的过程当中，类似于这样的报告会让特定的制造商或食品类别发生关键改变，以减少饱和脂肪、盐和糖。“

This evaluation can occur either by manufacturers replacing or reformulating the food and beverage products, Baldridge said.

“这一评估可以通过制造商替换或重新调整食品和饮料的配方而实现。”

"Our team has previously shown that breads, in particular, have 12% higher sodium content in the U.S. in comparison to the U.K., where national sodium-reduction strategies have contributed to lowering sodium levels in packaged foods," Baldridge said.

Baldridge表示：“我们的团队此前已经证明，美国的食品，特别是面包，其中的含钠量比英国的面包要高出12%。而全国新的减钠方案对降低包装食品的含钠量做出了贡献。”

The scientists analyzed data collected by local Chicago company Label Insight, which represents more than 80% of all food and beverage products sold in the U.S. over the past three years.

科学家们对芝加哥当地公司Label Insight所收集的数据进行分析。这些数据代表了美国在过去3年时间内所出售的所有食品和饮料的80%。

Collecting data on the packaged food and beverage supply is difficult because it is so large and about 20% of packaged foods in the U.S. turn over every year, Baldridge said.

收集有关包装食品和饮料的数据并非易事，这是因为这个一个非常庞大的数据而且美国每年都会有20%的包装食品消失。

"We need to better capture real-time information of our constantly changing food supply if we're going to track and improve its healthfulness," said study co-author Dr. Mark Huffman, the Quentin D. Young Professor of Health Policy, associate professor of preventive medicine and medicine at Feinberg and a Northwestern Medicine cardiologist.

研究的共同作者，Mark Huffman博士、Quentin D.健康政策青年教授、芬伯格医学院预防性药物和药物助教及西北大学医学院心脏病专家表示：“如果我们打算跟踪和改善食品的健康性，我们需要更好地掌握不断变化的食品供应的实时信息。”。

To that end, the study team, including researchers at The George Institute for Global Health in Australia, last summer launched the U.S. version of FoodSwitch, a free mobile phone app that allows consumers to scan packaged foods to determine their healthfulness. If a product doesn't exist in the app's 268,000-product database, then the app asks the user to crowdsource the information by uploading photos of its barcode, nutritional label and packaging to update the app's ever-growing database of foods.

为了实现这一目的，研究团队，包括澳大利亚乔治全球健康研究所的研究人员于去年夏天推出一款美国版的FoodSwitch。这是一款免费的手机APP，消费者通过这款APP可以扫描包装食品，以判断它们的健康性。如果APP的268,000种产品数据库内没有该产品，则app会让用户通过上传商品条形码照片、营养成分表和外包装来众包这一信息并更新app内不断扩大的食品数据库。

Crowdsource：众包

The scientists in this study ranked foods based on their healthfulness number defined by a Health Star Rating system, which scores packaged foods between 0.5 stars (unhealthiest) to 5 stars (healthiest) to provide a quick look at the nutritional profile of packaged foods. They focused specifically on whether products were ultra-processed or not, and compared healthfulness and level of processing product categories and leading manufacturers.

该研究中的科学家们根据由健康星级评定体系所定义的食品健康分数对食品的健康性进行排名。该体系将包装食品的评分定义在0.5（最不健康）到5分（最健康）之间，以快速提供包装食品的营养信息。他们会特别关注食品是否属于过度加工，并食品类别中的健康性和加工程度与领先的制造商进行对比。

文章来源：科学日报   编辑：Susan