A team in France worked with more than 44,000 people in a study running from 2009. They looked at how much of their diet and calories were made up of “ultra-processed” foods, those made in factories with industrial ingredients and additives such as dried ready meals, cakes and biscuits. Over seven years of follow ups there were 602 deaths of which 219 were from cancer and 34 from cardiovascular disease. Research found that deaths were more likely to occur in those who ate more ultra-processed food. Researchers say the link was clear even after taking into account the likelihood of smoking, obesity and lower educational background among those who ate ultra-processed food.
Participants were selected if they completed at least 1 set of 3 web-based 24-hour dietary records during their first 2 years of follow-up. Self-reported data were collected at baseline, including lifestyle, physical activity, weight and height. A total of 44,551 participants were included, 32,549 were women and 12,002 males.
In conclusion researchers found an increase in food consumption appears to be link with an overall higher death risk among the adult population. They explain that more studies are needed to confirm the findings and to extract the various processes by which high processed foods may affect health.
Prof Nita Forouhi, of the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge said:“The case against highly processed foods is mounting up, with this study adding importantly to a growing body of evidence on the health harms of ultra-processed foods,”
“A vital takeaway message is that consumption of highly processed foods reflects social inequalities – they are consumed disproportionately more by individuals with lower incomes or education levels, or those living alone,”
“Such foods are attractive because they tend to be cheaper, are highly palatable due to high sugar, salt and saturated fat content, are widely available, highly marketed, ready to eat, and their use-by dates are lengthy, so they last longer. More needs to be done to address these inequalities.”
Dr Ian Johnson, nutrition researcher and Emeritus Fellow at the Quadram Institute Bioscience said: “This is a large, carefully conducted prospective study of healthy middle-aged and older French people, in which a statistically significant association between death from any cause and a relatively higher consumption of ‘ultra-processed foods’ has been identified,”
“To put things into perspective, although the risk of dying over the seven-year period of investigation was about 15% higher among those consuming more of these foods, the background risk across the whole group was low.”
