These Ultra-Processed Foods Linked to Higher Mortality Risk

• A new study found that consuming ultra-processed foods may be linked to a slightly higher mortality risk.
• Ultra-processed foods include a wide variety of items including instant noodles, ready-made meals, and other packaged snacks like chips or cookies that have been processed industrially.
• Previous research suggests that ultra-processed foods account for up to 58% of daily calorie intake in high-income countries like the United States.

Consumption of ultra-processed foods like ready-to-eat meat, poultry, and seafood products, sugary drinks like sodas, dairy-based desserts, and processed breakfast cereals or other foods, may be linked to a slightly higher risk of early death, a new study found.

The study, published in The BMJ on May 8, examined data from two surveys that both spanned more than 30 years: 74,563 female registered nurses from 11 states in the U.S. who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study from 1984 to 2018, and 39,501 male health professionals from every state who participated in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1986 to 2018. The participants had no history of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, or diabetes when the studies started, and they submitted information about lifestyles and health every two years and diet information every four years.

Overall dietary quality was assessed using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI) score.

Over the period of consistent follow-ups, researchers identified 48,193 deaths:

• 13,557 due to cancer
• 11,416 due to cardiovascular diseases,
• 3,926 due to respiratory diseases
• 6,343 due to neurodegenerative diseases

Participants’ consumption of ultra-processed food was divided into quarters. Compared to those in the lowest quarter, those in the highest quarter, with a median intake of about 7 daily servings, had a 4% higher risk of death from any cause. They also…