Study shows: Consumption of highly processed foods increases risk of death | Health

According to a recent study, older adults who reported eating more ultra-processed foods were nearly 10 percent more likely to die after an average follow-up of 23 years than older adults who reported eating less processed foods.

The findings come from a large study that followed more than 500,000 people in the United States over a period of about thirty years. The results showed that eating more ultra-processed foods was associated with a slight increase in deaths from heart disease and diabetes, as well as deaths from all causes. However, no association was observed for deaths from cancer.

“Our study results support a larger body of literature, including observational and experimental studies, that suggests that consuming ultra-processed foods has negative effects on health and life expectancy,” said Dr. Erikka Loftfield, Stadtman Investigator at the National Cancer Institute. “However, there is still much we don’t know, including which aspects of ultra-processed foods pose potential health risks.”

Loftfield will present the findings at NUTRITION 2024, the flagship annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, which will be held in Chicago from June 29 to July 2. (Read also | How often should you really weigh yourself?)

The study relied on data from more than 540,000 people who reported on their eating habits and health in the mid-1990s, when they were between 50 and 71 years old. More than half of the participants have since died. The researchers analyzed the overall death rate among those who were in the 90th percentile for ultra-processed food consumption at baseline compared to those in the 10th percentile, and also looked at associations with specific foods and specific diseases.

“We found that ultra-processed meat and soft drinks are among the subgroups of ultra-processed foods most strongly associated with the risk of death. Diets low in these foods are already recommended for disease prevention and health promotion,” Loftfield said. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats such as hot dogs, sausages and deli meats.

For this study, researchers used several strategies to classify the level of processing of different foods. These included breaking down food frequency questionnaire data by specific food and ingredient types and incorporating expert consensus to categorize food components using a rubric known as the NOVA classification system.

The researchers also took into account other factors that can increase a person’s risk of death, such as smoking and obesity. They found that people who consumed more ultra-processed foods also had a higher body mass index and a lower Healthy Eating Index (a measure of diet quality based on how well a person’s diet meets the Dietary Guidelines for Americans).

However, the analysis showed that the associations between consumption of ultra-processed foods and increased mortality could not be explained by these variables, as the associations between higher intake of ultra-processed foods and risk of death persisted both in people with better and worse diet quality and in people with normal weight and obesity.

This story has been published from a news agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.