ReviewChildren (Basel, Switzerland)2023
Ultra-Processed Food, Reward System and Childhood Obesity.
Review in Children (Basel, Switzerland), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Food-Related Attentional Biases in Restrained Eaters: A Meta-Analysis.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Neurobiological insights into the effects of ultra-processed food on lipid metabolism and associated mental health conditions: a scoping review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Role of the CB2 Cannabinoid Receptor in the Regulation of Food Intake: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Associations between maternal diet, family eating habits and preschool children's dietary patterns: insights from the UPBEAT trial.Nutrition journal · 2024Trial
- Ultra-Processed Food Intake Is Associated with High Consumption of Added Sugar and Sodium in U.S. Infants.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Prospective association between baseline ultra-processed food consumption and future adherence to the 24-h movement guidelines in children: findings from the SENDO project.European journal of pediatrics · 2026Article
- Screen Time, Unhealthy Eating Behaviors, and Associated Health Risks in Children: A Narrative Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Eating Behavior and Eating Habits: From Infancy to Adolescence.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Prevalence of overweight and obesity and their associations with lifestyle habits among late adolescents in the Northern Border Region of Saudi Arabia: a cross‑sectional study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Ten tips on how to optimize nutrition in children with chronic kidney disease or on dialysis.Clinical kidney journal · 2026Review
- The Natural History of Prediabetes and Cardiovascular Disease in the Pediatric Population.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Association between eating behaviours and food and beverage consumption in male and female children aged 3-6 years: The CORALS cohort.European journal of nutrition · 2026Article
- Bridging the gap in pediatric nutrition: a narrative review of nutritional support strategies and their impact on child health inequalities.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Examining ultra-processed food consumption and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms in children living in Kuwait.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Review
- The case for broader use of HOMA-IR in pediatric metabolic assessment: a narrative review.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Review
- Article
- Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease in Egypt: Epidemiology, risk factors and management challenges.World journal of gastroenterology · 2025Review
- Development and Validation of a New Tool for Assessing the Intake of Ultra-Processed Foods in Adult Population: GR-UPFAST.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2025Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Obesity and overweight are a major public health problem globally. Diet quality is critical for proper child development, and an unhealthy diet is a preventable risk factor for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as obesity. Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in childhood may increase the BMI/BMI z-score, body fat percentage, or likelihood of overweight. A strict feeding regulation system allows for sufficient food to be consumed to meet ongoing metabolic demands while avoiding overconsumption. This narrative review explores the issues of obesity and the regulation of food intake related to reward systems and UPF consumption. Nutrient composition alone cannot explain the influence of UPFs on the risk of obesity. Furthermore, the non-nutritional properties of UPFs may explain the mechanisms underlying the relationship with obesity and NCDs. UPFs are designed to be highly palatable, appealing, and energy dense with a unique combination of the main taste enhancer ingredients to generate a strong rewarding stimulus and influence the circuits related to feeding facilitation. How individual UPF ingredients influence eating behavior and reward processes remains not fully elucidated. To increase the knowledge on the relationship between UPFs and pediatric obesity, it may be useful to limit the rapid growth in the prevalence of obesity and subsequent related complications, and to develop new strategies for appropriate food and nutrition policies.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.