Want to bookmark your favorite articles and stories to read or view later? Start your independent membership today.
Join us today
Already a member? Log in
There is now growing evidence that eating ultra-processed foods is bad for your health.
A diet that includes more cookies, chips, cakes, pizza, hot dogs and other salty and sweet items — such as grilled cheese sandwiches stuffed with candy — may significantly increase your risk of chronic disease, finds a new analysis of more than 50 studies, including nearly 9 million adults.
An ultra-processed diet increases the risk of cardiovascular accidents, diabetes and obesity by almost a quarter. It also increases the risk of depression and anxiety by 27 percent and that of digestive disease by 31 percent.
And every additional 100 grams of these foods per day increases the risk of developing cancer by 4 percent and the risk of death from any cause by 3 percent.
“In our modern society, our diet and foods may not be safe…we should eat more vegetables and reduce ultra-processed foods to make us healthier,” Dr. Xiao Liu, lead author of the study and a doctor at Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, said Tuesday.
The researchers also noted that new evidence suggests that the combination of additives in ultra-processed foods could have a “cocktail effect” on human health, combining to create a stronger toxic impact.
Previous studies have shown that ultra-processed foods affect the gut, promoting inflammation linked to cancer and insulin resistance that leads to diabetes, the researchers said.
Additionally, compounds that can form during food processing have been linked to a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease, they added.
How often people ate these foods was recorded in diaries and questionnaires, although the researchers note that this means their assessment relies on subjective information.
About 60 percent of the American diet is ultra-processed, according to Stanford Medicine, with ultra-processed foods often cheaper to purchase than healthier options.
Ultraprocessed foods are made up of sodium, added sugars and refined grains, as well as industrial ingredients that enhance taste and texture.
However, not all ultra-processed foods are considered junk food. For example, yogurt and hummus are better options.
Yet a June study from Tufts University found that people who ate more ultra-processed foods had worse health outcomes, even after taking into account the overall nutritional quality of the foods.
“The findings suggest that ultra-processed food factors beyond nutrients — such as changes in the cellular structure of foods, loss of beneficial chemical compounds, additives and chemicals in packaging — may create health risks that are not addressed by traditional nutrition metrics or policies,” said the study’s lead author, cardiologist Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the university’s Food is Medicine Institute, in a statement.
Gn Health
