Health Risk Increased by Ultra-processed Foods

Consuming a high amount of ultra-processed, such as snacks, chips, convenience foods, and carbonated drinks, increases death risk, especially from cardiovascular causes.

Consuming a high amount of ultra-processed foods had an increased risk of death from any cause of 26%, and of 58% specifically from cardiovascular diseases, finds a new study. The findings of the study are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Supermarket shelves are increasingly flooded with foods produced by extensive industrial processing, generally low in essential nutrients, high in sugar, oil, salt, and liable to be overconsumed. And they are very attractive: the convenience of microwave meals, the good taste of chips, the cheapness of a snack to take to school. Research by the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention at the I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed, in Italy, now confirms that these foods are harmful to health.

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‘Industrially produced foods, like chips, snacks, convenience foods, carbonated drinks, increase the risk of death, especially from cardiovascular causes. ’

Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study was conducted on over twenty-two thousand citizens participating in the Moli-sani Project. By analyzing their eating habits and following their health conditions for over eight years, Neuromed researchers observed that those consuming a high amount of ultra-processed foods had an increased risk of death from any cause of 26%, 58% specifically from cardiovascular diseases.

"To evaluate the nutrition habits of the Moli-sani participants - explains Marialaura Bonaccio, a researcher at the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention and first author of the study - we used the international NOVA classification, which characterizes foods based on how much they undergo an extraction, purification or alteration. Those with the highest level of industrial processing fall into the category of ultra-processed foods. According to our observations, people consuming large amounts of these foods have an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases".

The main culprit could be sugar, which in ultra-processed foods is added in substantial amounts. But the answer seems more complicated. "According to our analyses - explains Augusto Di Castelnuovo, epidemiologist of the Department, currently at Mediterranea Cardiocentro in Naples - the excess of sugar does play a role, but it accounts only for 40% of the increased death risk. Our idea is that an important part is played by industrial processing itself, able to induce deep modifications in the structure and composition of nutrients".

Eating Too Much of Ultra-processed Foods can Lower Your Heart Health
If you are eating too much ultra-processed foods, its time to say no to them because eating fast food can put you at risk of heart disease. Ultra-processed foods are often high in salt, added sugars, saturated fat and other substances that increase the risk of heart disease.

"Efforts aimed to lead the population towards a healthier diet - comments Licia Iacoviello, Director of the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention of Neuromed and full professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Insubria in Varese - can no longer be addressed only by calories counting or by vague references to the Mediterranean diet. Sure, we obtained good results by those means, but now the battlefront is moving. Young people, in particular, are increasingly exposed to pre-packaged foods, easy to prepare and consume, extremely attractive, and generally cheap. This study, and other international researches going in the same direction, tell us that, in a healthy nutrition habit, fresh or minimally processed foods must be paramount. Spending a few more minutes cooking a lunch instead of warming a container in the microwave, or maybe preparing a sandwich for our children instead of putting a pre-packaged snack in their backpack: these are actions that will reward us over the years ".

Source-Eurekalert

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Eating More Ultra-processed Foods Can Lead to Early Death
Eating too many ultra-processed foods can put at higher risk of early death. So, avoid highly processed foods like packaged snacks, sodas, sweetened drinks, cakes, donuts, pastries, ice cream, pizzas, pasta, burgers, hot dogs, and sausages to live longer.