Ultra-processed food is linked to 'early death'

Eating ‘ultra-processed’ foods could increase your risk of heart disease and death, according to new research.

Two separate studies, published in the British Medical Journal, highlight the potential link between eating lots of packaged snacks and ready meals, and harm to health.

The researchers said that we should try to eat fresh food where possible, but they did admit that more evidence is needed to understand the effect of highly-processed foods.

The first study, carried out by scientists from France and Brazil, included more than 105,000 French adults.

When ‘ultra-processed’ food was increased by 10%, there was a 12% increased risk of cardiovascular disease, 13% increase for coronary heart disease and 11% for cerebrovascular diseases, which affect the blood supply to the heart and brain.

In the second study, researchers from the University of Navarra in Spain analysed data from around 20,000 adults over 10 years.

They found that eating more than four servings of ‘ultra-processed’ food per day was linked with a 62% increased risk of death from any cause, compared with those who ate less than two servings.

Worryingly, each additional serving increased mortality risk by 18%.

‘Improving diet based on adherence to minimally processed food – a key aspect of the Mediterranean diet – has been shown to protect against chronic disease and all cause mortality,’ said researchers at the University of Navarra.

‘Discouraging the consumption of ultra-processed foods; targeting products, taxation, and marketing restrictions on ultra-processed products; and promotion of fresh or minimally processed foods should be considered part of important health policy to improve global public health.’

What are ‘ultra-processed’ foods?

A processed food is simply any food that has been altered in some way during preparation. So that includes milk, cheese, yoghurt and oil.

Some foods need processing to make them safe, like when milk is pasteurised. Other foods need processing to make them suitable for use, such as pressing seeds to make oil.

But a lot of processed foods contain high levels of salt, sugar and fat to make them taste better and extend their shelf lives. So that’s why so many processed foods are really bad for us.

And ultra-processed foods pose an even higher risk.

‘”Ultra-processed” foods are foods that have undergone several transformation processes including heating at high temperatures and include the presence of additives and emulsifiers.

‘These are added to enhance the flavour, taste and appearance.

‘Examples include sweet or savoury packaged snacks like crisps, packaged baked goods like cakes, cookies, frozen ready meals, reconstituted meat products, instant noodles, soups and soft drinks.

‘These foods tend to have a long list of ingredients and are high in sugar, salt, and low in vitamins, minerals and fibre.’

Sonal Shah, Nutritionist Resource member

‘The classification of “ultra-processed” foods used by the researchers is very broad and so there could be a number of reasons why these foods are being linked to increased risk to our health; for example, nutritional content, additives in food or other factors in a person’s life,’ said Victoria Taylor, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation.

‘Before we consider making any changes to advice or policy it is important to understand this thoroughly.

‘We already recommend people adopt a Mediterranean-style diet which also happens to include plenty of minimally or unprocessed foods such as fruit, vegetables, fish, nuts and seeds, beans, lentils and wholegrains.

‘This, along with exercising regularly and not smoking, has been shown to be beneficial for lowering risk of heart and circulatory disease.’

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