Ultra-Processed Foods Linked with Multiple Health Outcomes

Ultra-processed food (UPF) is associated with an increased risk of death as well as several chronic disease outcomes, according to a meta-analysis of studies involving more than eight million people.

The findings, in Family Medicine and Community Health , quantify the health risks of eating just 100g more per day of these additive-rich products, which undergo extensive industrial processing.

These ready-to-eat and heat-and-serve consumables were associated with an elevated risk for cardiovascular and cancer events and also for being obese or overweight.

In addition, UPF consumption was associated with the metabolic syndrome or diabetes, depression or anxiety, and digestive diseases, as well as mortality from all causes.

Rather than simply restricting intake, lead researcher Xiao Liu, PhD, from Duke-NUS medical school in Singapore, and co-workers suggest that replacing UPFs with minimally processed alternatives may provide a more sustainable and patient-centered approach.