Stop eating ultraprocessed food if you don't want an early death
People eating ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) might be snacking their way to an earlier death, says research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine .
From white bread to soda, the hallmark features of UPFs include added sugar, salt, hydrogenated fats, artificial colours, preservatives and starches.
UPFs make up roughly 58% of American diets, the most out of any country.
According to lead study investigator Eduardo Nilson, as far as diets go, it's a potentially deadly one.
'We first estimated a linear association between the dietary share of UPFs and all-cause mortality, so that each 10% increase in the participation of UPFs in the diet increases the risk of death from all causes by 3%,' he said in a news release.
Nilson and his team of researchers pooled data on UPFs from eight countries, including the United States.
Worldwide, the US outranked every other featured country for having the highest concentration of UPFs in its diets.
Americans consequently faced the highest increased risk of death – nearly 14%.
The study estimated 124,000 premature deaths within the US were attributable to UPF consumption in 2018 alone.
UPF consumption has previously been linked to 32 health conditions, including cancers, obesity and high blood pressure.
Nilson and his team's work, however, has given researchers a better understanding of precisely how all of those different influences may be putting consumers at risk.
'UPFs affect health beyond the individual impact of high content of critical nutrients (sodium, trans fats and sugar) because of the changes in the foods during industrial processing and the use of artificial ingredients, including colourants, artificial flavours and sweeteners, emulsifiers and many other additives and processing aids.
'So, assessing deaths from all-causes associated with UPF consumption allows an overall estimate of the effect of industrial food processing on health,' Nilson explained.
While the US is facing the highest rate of attributable premature deaths, UPFs are becoming an expanding issue in many other countries.
'It is concerning that, while in high-income countries UPF consumption is already high but relatively stable for over a decade, in low- and middle-income countries the consumption has continuously increased, meaning that while the attributable burden in high-income countries is currently higher, it is growing in the other countries,' Nilson said.
'This shows that policies that disincentivise the consumption of UPFs are urgently needed globally, promoting traditional dietary patterns based on local fresh and minimally processed foods.'
For this study, Nilson's team processed data on UPF consumption in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the US. – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Tribune News Service
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