{"id":515928,"date":"2026-03-10T23:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/515928\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T23:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:32:12","slug":"ultra-processed-foods-may-be-linked-to-behavioural-issues-in-kids-study-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/515928\/","title":{"rendered":"Ultra-processed foods may be linked to behavioural issues in kids: study – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study says there appears to be a link between consumption of ultra-processed foods<\/a> (UPF) in preschool years and behavioural issues in childhood.<\/p>\n

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\nThe first-of-its-kind research conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto analyzed dietary data of 2,077 Canadian three-year-olds collected from September 2011 to April 2018 in the CHILD Cohort Study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nearly 3,500 families contributed to the cohort, which followed the children from before birth to adolescence in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto. The researchers then assessed the children\u2019s emotional and behavioural well-being two years later, when they were five.<\/p>\n

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It was found that \u201chigher UPF intake at age three years was associated with adverse behavioural and emotional symptoms at age five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, for every 10 per cent rise in calories coming from ultra-processed foods, five-year-olds had higher instances of \u201cinternalizing\u201d behaviours (44.6 per cent), such as anxiety and fearfulness, and \u201cexternalizing\u201d behaviours (39.6 per cent), including aggression and hyperactivity, as well as overall behavioural difficulties.<\/p>\n

Almost half (48 per cent) of Canadian preschoolers\u2019 daily energy intake came from ultra-processed foods, yet the researchers note that little is understood about how UPFs might influence their behavioural and emotional development.<\/p>\n

Kozeta Miliku, the clinical science officer of the CHILD cohort study, found the results to be \u201creally alarming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see the food environment around us, it\u2019s something that we expect. And in this study, we did examine whether this ultra-processed food intake in their child[\u2018s] food, so among three-year-olds, is linked to the behaviour and emotional development,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The study found that the main ultra-processed food subgroups contributing to energy were sweets and desserts (12.5 per cent), breads and cereals (11.9 per cent), animal-based products (7.9 per cent) and ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat mixed dishes (6.1 per cent).<\/p>\n

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The ultra-processed food subgroup for children at age found that \u201chigher intake of artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages was associated with a higher internalizing score and total behaviour score but not externalizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It was also uncovered that the three-year-olds surveyed had \u201chigher intakes of breads and cereals and ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat mixed dishes were associated with higher internalizing scores.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One of the indicators that Miliku pointed out for kids consuming more ultra-processed foods is \u201cnot only the family cell\u201d but \u201calso the environment level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer the commute, the higher the chance for their children to be fed more ultra-processed food, or the accessibility to a fresh fruit and veggie market to lower the ultra-processed food consumption,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was really interesting to see that it\u2019s not just families, it\u2019s not just the parents themselves, but it\u2019s more the environment around us that pushes towards this ultra-processed food consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Theo Moraes, the Toronto site director for the CHILD Cohort study and head of respiratory medicine at SickKids Toronto, said that all of these factors can be \u201cintertwined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moraes said that \u201cwhen you look at children\u2019s diets in early life, there are associations with behaviour in older life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things we know are healthy for us. Diet is one of them. Getting enough sleep, getting enough exercise, but actually implementing it in our lives can be tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Miliku also noted that implementing healthy eating habits early and consistently can have a positive impact on a child\u2019s mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly childhood is really a sensitive period for brain development. So, during this stage, children are establishing both dietary habits and behavioural patterns,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen we think about the long-term, research has shown that behaviour patterns in early childhood can track into later childhood and adolescence, and they may be associated with later mental health outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tHealthy eating is not about blame\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Miliku emphasized that these findings are meant to \u201creally think in a holistic approach rather than just making parents feel guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a strong, important message because we as parents feel the blame. But seeing that it\u2019s not just the family level, but it\u2019s more from the family to the society or urban development, it\u2019s really important to also talk about those issues as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This is a sentiment that Moraes also echoed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of pressure on parents. We don\u2019t want our data, our research, our findings to create a lot of guilt for parents as well. And so that\u2019s also something to be careful of,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study says there appears to be a link between consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) in preschool…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[103,97,269,17770],"class_list":["post-515928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-nutrition","tag-ultra-processed-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}