There’s no question in most folks’ minds that ultra-processed foods are linked to all sorts of health horrors. But the most recent study shows even a little UPF every day can increase your risk of hypertension, cardiovascular events, cancer and more…
Insidious…
“Ultra-processed foods are characterized by high sugar, high salt, and other non-nutritive components, exhibiting low nutritional density yet high caloric content,” reprises Xiao Liu, MD, with the department of cardiology at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.
“These products may contribute to adverse health outcomes through multiple mechanisms, including but not limited to dysregulation of blood lipid profiles, alterations in gut microbiota composition, promotion of obesity, induction of systemic inflammation, exacerbation of oxidative stress and impairment of insulin sensitivity.”
But until now there hasn’t been a single study that attempted to calculate how much (or little, as your perspective may dictate) UPF it takes to inflict damage.
What they did
Liu and his colleagues data-mined and analysed a positively mammoth collection of existing data sets to reach their surprising conclusions…
The systematic review included 41 prospective cohort studies spanning the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania assessing the association between ultra-processed foods and health outcomes prior to April 2024. Taken together, the studies involved a total of 8,286,940 adult patients aged 18 years or older from the general population (30.8 percent male, 69.2 percent female).
What they found
The study confirmed that ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption was associated with hypertension, cardiovascular events, cancer, digestive diseases and all-cause mortality.
But consumption of as little as 100 g of UPF per day was all that was needed to produce undesirable results. And each additional 100 g/day of ultra-processed food consumption was specifically associated with:
- A 14.5 percent higher risk of hypertension,
- A 5.9 percent increased risk of cardiovascular events,
- 1.2 percent increased risk of cancer,
- A19.5 percent higher risk of digestive diseases, and…
- A 2.6 percent higher risk of all-cause mortality.
Researchers also observed varying degrees of increased risk of obesity/overweight, metabolic syndromes/diabetes and depression/anxiety.
The takeaway
The researchers were shocked to discover that as little as 100 g per day of UPF could produce such undesirable effects. But the big surprise was that each additional 100 g per day of UPF consumed increased the danger by such dramatic margins – especially in the cases of hypertension and digestive diseases.
“Emerging evidence suggests a dose-response relationship between ultra-processed food consumption and negative health outcomes,” Liu concludes. Therefore, reducing ultra-processed foods intake, even modestly, may offer measurable health benefits.
Time for action
The evidence is so compelling, in fact, that governments may want to consider implementing measures to urge or mandate reductions the consumption of ultra-processed foods to mitigate the associated health impacts.
Some suggested measures include establishing stringent food labeling regulations, requiring manufacturers to provide explicit and comprehensive ingredient disclosures — particularly detailing all additives present in ultra-processed foods, Liu says.
Clinicians should also encourage patients to gradually lower their ultra-processed food intake, replacing them with more=nutritious, minimally processed foods.
My take
We’ve gone over the numbers in this space many times, in many contexts. But the outcome is always the same. A wide range of surveys by an equally diverse collection of research groups confirms that – no matter how you count them – more than 70 percent of the foods on North American supermarket shelves are processed or ultra-processed. And that up to 75 percent of what many low- and middle-income Americans eat every day consists of foods that are processed to some degree or another.
Manufacturers and retailers have had ample opportunity to take the hint and voluntarily move toward improving the products they set before consumers. But they’ve consistently put their collective priority on out-selling the competition and increasing profits.
It’s time to start taking real, hard, quantifiable evidence such as the results of the Liu study seriously. And impose changes in the way folks at for the individual and collective good…
~ Maggie J.