Background Food environments have changed rapidly, and the global interest in ultraprocessed foods has increased. Ultra-processed foods are typically energy dense, high in sugars and fat, and low in fiber, protein, minerals, and vitamins.Objective This study aimed to estimate the energy contribution of ultra-processed foods in the diet of Korean adults and to examine the association between ultraprocessed food consumption and dietary intake and diet quality.Design This study is a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016e2018).Participants/settings A total of 16,657 adults aged 19 years who completed a 1-day 24-hour recall.Main outcome measures Absolute and relative intake of energy and nutrients were measured and dietary quality was assessed using the Korean Healthy Eating Index (KHEI).Statistical analysis Multiple regression models adjusted for sociodemographic variables were used to examine the association between quintiles of ultra-processed foods dietary energy contribution and dietary intake and quality.Results Mean reported daily energy intake was 2,031 kcal, with 25.1% of calories coming from ultra-processed foods. Mean energy contribution from ultra-processed foods ranged from 3.6% kcal (Q1) to 52.4% kcal (Q5). Energy contribution of ultraprocessed foods was positively associated with reported intake of daily energy, total sugars, and total and saturated fat and inversely associated with reported intake of carbohydrates, fiber, minerals, and vitamins. Both sodium and potassium were negatively associated with percentage of energy from ultra-processed foods. However, the sodium-to-potassium ratio was high regardless of quintile of energy contribution from ultra-processed foods, and the ratio was positively associated with percentage of total energy from ultra-processed foods. Although the KHEI score was inversely associated with percentage of daily energy from ultra-processed foods, all levels of ultra-processed food consumption were associated with poor diet quality. ConclusionsThe ultra-processed foods consumption of Korean adults accounted for one fourth of daily energy intake, and a higher dietary energy contribution from ultraprocessed foods was associated with poorer dietary intakes and a lower dietary quality. Further studies are needed to understand factors influencing selection and consumption of ultra-processed foods and to identify effective strategies to promote healthy food choices.

Author's summary Hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, and poor-quality diet are major modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Korean and Japanese populations. In both Korea and Japan, physical inactivity exhibits the highest prevalence among the risk factors, followed by hypertension in Japan or obesity in Korea. Implementation of the primordial prevention strategies focused on the above-mentioned risk factors should be the priority of the health policymakers to tackle the growing burden of CVD in both countries.

Ultra-processed food (UPF), which is growing in consumption worldwide, is salty and sweet, industrially produced, and primarily consists of compounds derived from food with little, if any, whole food. The current study investigated the association between the dietary energy contribution of UPF consumption and blood pressure (BP) in Korean adults using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey VII 2016-2018. As a result, the UPF consumption was independently associated with elevated BP, and this association was more profound among current smokers and obese adults. These results suggest that lowering the UPF consumption may help prevent BP elevation.

BackgroundOne in eight women will be affected by breast cancer in her lifetime. Approximately 75% of breast cancers express estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and/or progesterone receptor and these receptors are markers for tumor dependence on estrogen. Anti-estrogenic drugs such as tamoxifen are commonly used to block estrogen-mediated signaling in breast cancer. However, many patients either do not respond to these therapies (de novo resistance) or develop resistance to them following prolonged treatment (acquired resistance). Therefore, it is imperative to continue efforts aimed at developing new efficient and safe methods of targeting ER activity in breast cancer.MethodsAB215 is a chimeric ligand assembled from sections of Activin A and BMP2. BMP2’s and AB215’s inhibition of breast cancer cells growth was investigated. In vitro luciferase and MTT proliferation assays together with western blot, RT_PCR, and mRNA knockdown methods were used to determine the mechanism of inhibition of estrogen positive breast cancer cells growth by BMP2 and AB215. Additionally in vivo xenograft tumor model was used to investigate anticancer properties of AB215.ResultsHere we report that AB215, a chimeric ligand assembled from sections of Activin A and BMP2 with BMP2-like signaling, possesses stronger anti-proliferative effects on ERα positive breast cancer cells than BMP2. We further show that AB215 inhibits estrogen signaling by inducing expression of inhibitor of DNA binding proteins (IDs). Specifically, we demonstrate that knockdown of ID proteins attenuates the anti-estrogen effects of AB215. Remarkably, we find that AB215 is more effective than tamoxifen in suppressing tumor growth in a xenograft model.ConclusionThis study shows that IDs have profound role to inhibit estrogen signaling in ERα positive breast cancer cells, and that engineered TGF-beta ligands may have high therapeutic value.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2407-14-549) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

We found a significant association between serum 25(OH)D and pulmonary function, and this was related to sex, age and body mass index.