Food consumption in Brazil: social inequalities, impact on diet quality and on the environment

• Grant number: 22/11009-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: November 01, 2022
• End date: December 27, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Nutrition - Nutritional Analysis of Population
• Principal Investigator: Maria Laura da Costa Louzada
• Grantee: Gabriela Lopes da Cruz
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Saúde Pública (FSP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/07638-2 - Dietary patterns according to characteristics of food processing: social inequalities, impacts on dietary quality and the environment, BE.EP.DD

Abstract

The way people eat relates to important impacts on health and on the environment, being conditioned by individual socioeconomic conditions: a complex system of nutritional, social and environmental dimensions. The consumption of ultra-processed foods is rising in the world, with negative outcomes for human and planetary health. Objective: Evaluate food consumption in Brazil in 2017-2018, according to industrial processing characteristics, the socioeconomic distribution, and the association with nutritional quality of the diet and with environmental impact indicators. Methods: Food consumption and household food availability data from the 2008-2009 and 2017-2018 Household Budget Surveys conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics will be analyzed. The first manuscript will describe the Brazilian food intake using healthy and unhealthy eating markers according to the sociodemographic distribution using a vulnerability index in 2017-2018 and its temporal trend between 2008-2018. In the second manuscript, the frontal nutrition labeling criteria of the National Health Surveillance Agency and the Nutritional Profile Model of the Pan American Health Organization will be applied to food consumption data to identify foods in the Brazilian diet with excessive amounts of critical nutrients for non-communicable diseases, evaluating differences in the average intake and in the prevalence of excessive intake of these nutrients. The third manuscript will use food acquisition data to estimate the carbon footprint and water footprint of the Brazilian diet according to the energy share of beef and ultra-processed foods, and will assess the association between different dietary patterns and environmental footprints. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

GABRIELA LOPES DA CRUZ; GIOVANNA CALIXTO ANDRADE; FERNANDA RAUBER; RENATA BERTAZZI LEVY; MARIA LAURA DA COSTA LOUZADA. Aplicação da classificação de alimentos Nova na Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares 2017-2018: estratégia de monitoramento da adesão às recomendações do Guia Alimentar para a População Brasileira. Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde, v. 34, 2025-05-12. (22/11009-8)

DA CRUZ, GABRIELA LOPES; DA COSTA LOUZADA, MARIA LAURA; DA SILVA, JACQUELINE TEREZA; MARIA FELLEGGER GARZILLO, JOSEFA; RAUBER, FERNANDA; SCHMIDT RIVERA, XIMENA; REYNOLDS, CHRISTIAN; LEVY, RENATA BERTAZZI. The environmental impact of beef and ultra-processed food consumption in Brazil. PUBLIC HEALTH NUTRITION, v. 27, n. 1, p. 10-pg., 2024-01-04. (22/11009-8)