CNN
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Eating higher amounts of ultra-processed foods could reduce life expectancy by more than 10%, according to a new unpublished study of more than 500,000 people followed by researchers for nearly three decades.
The risk rose to 15% for men and 14% for women once the data was adjusted, said the study’s lead author, Erikka Loftfield, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, in the Maryland.
When asked about their consumption of 124 foods, people in the top 90th percentile of ultra-processed food consumption said overly processed drinks topped their list.
“Diet soft drinks were the main contributor to ultra-processed food consumption. The second was sugary soft drinks,” Loftfield said. “Beverages are a very important part of the diet and contribute to ultra-processed foods.”
Refined grains such as ultra-processed breads and baked goods came in second in popularity, according to the study.
“This is another large, long-term cohort study confirming the association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and all-cause mortality, particularly from cardiovascular disease and type diabetes. 2,” Carlos Monteiro, professor emeritus of nutrition and public health at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, said in an email.
Monteiro coined the term ultraprocessed food and created the NOVA food classification system, which goes beyond nutrients to understand how food is made. Monteiro was not involved in the study, but several members of the NOVA classification system were co-authors.
The NOVA classification system sorts foods from minimally processed foods – whole foods like fruits and vegetables – to processed foods like cold cuts and sausages – to ultra-processed foods. Ultra-processed foods contain ingredients “never or rarely used in cooking, or classes of additives whose function is to make the final product palatable or more appealing,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
The list of additives includes preservatives to resist mold and bacteria; emulsifiers to prevent incompatible ingredients from separating; artificial colors and dyes; antifoaming, bulking, whitening, gelling, and glazing agents; and added or modified sugar, salt, and fats to make foods palatable.
Health risks from processed meats and soft drinks
The preliminary study, presented Sunday at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting in Chicago, analyzed dietary data collected in 1995 from nearly 541,000 Americans ages 50 to 71 who participated in the U.S. National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study.
The researchers linked the dietary data to death rates over the next 20 to 30 years. People who ate the most processed foods were more likely to die from heart disease or diabetes than those in the bottom 10 percent of ultra-processed foods, the study found. Unlike other studies, however, the researchers found no increase in cancer-related deaths.
Some ultra-processed foods pose a higher risk than others, Loftfield said: “Highly processed meat and soft drinks are two of the subgroups of ultra-processed foods most strongly associated with mortality risk. »
Diet drinks are considered ultra-processed foods because they contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and stevia, as well as additional additives not found in whole foods. Diet drinks have been linked to a higher risk of dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease as well as the onset of dementia, type 2 diabetes, obesity, stroke, and metabolic syndrome, which can lead to heart disease and diabetes.
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines already recommend limiting consumption of sugary drinks, which are associated with premature death and the development of chronic diseases. A March 2019 study found that women who drank more than two servings per day of sugary drinks (a standard glass, bottle, or can) had a 63% increased risk of premature death compared to women who drank them less than once a month. Men who did the same had a 29% increased risk.
Processed meats such as bacon, hot dogs, sausages, ham, corned beef, jerky and cold cuts are also not recommended; studies have linked red and processed meats to intestinal and stomach cancers, heart disease, diabetes and premature death from any cause.
“The evidence from this new study suggests that processed meat may be one of the unhealthiest foods, but people don’t tend to think of ham or chicken nuggets as ultra-processed foods,” Rosie Green, professor of environment, food and health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in a statement. She was not involved in the study.
The study found that people who ate the most ultra-processed foods were younger and heavier, and had overall poorer diet quality than those who ate fewer ultra-processed foods. However, the increased health risk cannot be explained by these differences, because even people with normal weight and better diets also have some risk of premature death from ultra-processed foods, the study found. .
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According to experts, consumption of ultra-processed foods has likely doubled since this study was conducted.
One of the study’s major limitations was that dietary data was only collected once, about 30 years ago. Green said: “It’s hard to say how dietary habits might have changed between then and now.”
The production of ultra-processed foods has exploded since the mid-1990s. It is estimated that nearly 60% of the average American’s daily calories come from ultra-processed foods. This is not surprising, considering that up to 70% of the foods sold in any grocery store can be ultra-processed.
“We are probably underestimating the consumption of ultra-processed foods in our study because we are very conservative,” Loftfield said. “It is likely that this consumption has only increased over the years. »
In fact, a study published in May that found similar results — a higher risk of premature death and death from cardiovascular disease among more than 100,000 health care workers who ate ultra-processed foods — looked at ultra-processed foods every four years and found that consumption doubled between the mid-1980s and 2018.
“For example, daily consumption of packaged salty snacks and dairy-based desserts, such as ice cream, has nearly doubled since the 1990s,” said the lead author of the May study, Dr. Mingyang Song, associate professor of clinical epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“In our study, as in this one, the positive association was mainly among a few subgroups, including processed meat and sugary or artificially sweetened beverages,” Song said. “However, all ultra-processed food categories were associated with increased risk. »
Choosing less processed foods is one way to limit ultra-processed foods in your diet, Loftfield said.
“We should really focus on eating a diet rich in whole foods,” she said. “And if the food is ultra-processed, look at the sodium levels and added sugars and try to make the best decision possible using the Nutrition Facts label.”