United States: Among folks who eat a lot of ultra-processed foods, there is a slightly higher risk of premature death than the people who avoid the primarily industrially produced foods, according to a new 30-year study.
Those in the group that consumed an average of seven ultra-processed food servings daily had a 4% higher risk of death overall and some 9% higher from deaths not attributable to cancer or heart disease.
Risk Factors in Ultra-Processed Foods Consumption
These heightened risks of death were contributed mainly by meat/poultry/seafood ready-to-eat products, sugary and artificially sweetened beverages, dairy desserts, and ultra-processed breakfast meals according to the team of researchers led by associate professor Mingyang Song, the first author who is also currently from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, as reported by HealthDay.
The majority of ultra-processed food’s nutritional x-factor comes from its myriad of natural sources such as fats and starches, carbohydrates and added sugars. Furthermore the food industry uses different kinds of additives to make the food more attractive, tasty, and suitable for longer retention; for instance coloring the food, emulsifiers, stabilizers, flavors, and preservation.
The researchers noted examples include packaged breads, sweet cereals, ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat products, and deli cuts.
A growing base of evidence has demonstrated the linkage between these foods and the risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and bowel cancer, researchers revealed. However, a very small number of long-term studies have demonstrated the relationship between such products and the increased risk of a person’s death.
The study followed the long-term health of about 75,000 women registered nurses and almost 40,000 male health professionals.
Almost every participant in these studies was from either group, and these studies started in the mid-1980s and ended in 2018. Every other year, respondents were asked to complete a survey on their health and diet; every four years, they were required to complete a comprehensive food questionnaire.
The death rates among the 48,000 participants were monitored over 34 years.
Although an increased consumption of so-called ultra-processed eatables was linked to a higher risk of death, researchers noted that the connection was less pronounced once they took a person’s overall dietetic quality into account.
The Role of Dietary Quality
The study revealed that dietary quality exhibited a more substantial impact on mortality from all causes than that caused by the consumption of ultra-processed foods.
The study also suggested that consuming whole-natural foods could have canceling effects on the negative effects caused by unhealthy junk food, as shown by researchers.
The team concluded, “The findings provide support for limiting consumption of certain types of ultra-processed food for long-term health,” adding that “future studies are warranted to improve the classification of ultra-processed foods and confirm our findings in other populations.”
Experts criticized this in a following editorial that pointed to the fact that not consuming whole but unhealthy foods such as red meat regularly is a recipe for diseases, as reported by HealthDay,