Ultra-processed foods include pre-packaged soups, sauces, frozen pizza, ready-to-eat meals, and indulgent foods like hot dogs, sausage, French fries, soft drinks, store-bought cookies, cakes, candy, donuts, ice cream, and many more.
“Literally hundreds of studies link ultra-processed foods to obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease and overall mortality,” said Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard professor emeritus of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. and the author of numerous books on food politics and marketing, including 2015’s “Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning).”
“These two studies maintain consistency: ultra-processed foods are unequivocally associated with an increased risk of chronic disease,” said Nestlé, who was not involved in either study.
However, the new study found that all types of ultra-processed foods played a role to some degree.
“We found that men in the highest quintile of ultra-processed food consumption, compared to those in the lowest quintile, had a 29 percent increased risk of developing colorectal cancer,” said co-senior author Fang Fang Zhang, a cancer epidemiologist and division president. in nutrition epidemiology and data science at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston.
That association held even after the researchers took into account a person’s body mass index or the quality of their diet.
Why didn’t the new study find the same colorectal cancer risk in women?
“The reasons for such a sex difference are still unknown, but may involve the different roles that obesity, sex hormones, and metabolic hormones play in men and women,” Zhang said.
“Alternatively, women could have chosen ‘healthier’ ultra-processed foods,” said Dr. Robin Mendelsohn, a gastroenterologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, who was not involved in the study.
The study found that eating “higher consumption of ultra-processed dairy products, such as yogurt, was associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer in women,” Zhang said. “Some ultra-processed foods are healthier, like whole foods that have little or no added sugar, and yogurt and dairy products.”
Women had a higher risk of colorectal cancer if they ate more ready-to-eat or heated dishes, such as pizza, he said. However, men were more likely to have a higher risk of bowel cancer if they ate a lot of meat, poultry or prepared seafood products and sugary drinks, Zhang said.
“Americans consume a large percentage of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods: 58% in adults and 67% in children,” he added. “We should consider substituting unprocessed or minimally processed foods for ultra-processed foods in our diet for cancer prevention and prevention of obesity and cardiovascular disease.”
A link to premature death
However, when the researchers compared the two types of food to see which contributed more, they found that ultra-processed foods were “primary in defining mortality risk,” said first author Marialaura Bonaccio, an epidemiologist in the department of epidemiology and prevention. . at the IRCCS Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed of Pozzilli, Italy.
In fact, more than 80% of the foods classified by the study guidelines as nutritionally unhealthy were also ultra-processed, Bonaccio said in a statement.
“This suggests that the increased risk of mortality is not due directly (or exclusively) to the poor nutritional quality of some products, but to the fact that these foods are mostly ultra-processed,” added Bonaccio.
not real food
Why are ultra-processed foods so bad for us? For one thing, they are “ready-to-eat or heat-up industrial formulations that are made with ingredients extracted from food or synthesized in labs, with little or no whole foods,” Zhang told CNN.
These overly processed foods are often high in added sugars and salt, low in dietary fiber, and full of chemical additives, such as artificial colors, flavors, or stabilizers.
“Although some ultra-processed foods may be considered healthier than others, in general, we’d recommend staying away from ultra-processed foods altogether and focusing on healthy unprocessed foods — fruits, vegetables, legumes,” Mendelsohn said.
“Clearly, there is something about ultra-processed foods that causes people to eat more without necessarily meaning to or realizing it.” Nestle said.
“The effects of ultra-processed foods are quite clear. The reasons for the effects are not yet known,” Nestlé continued. “It would be nice to know why, but until we find out, it’s best to recommend eating ultra-processed foods as little as possible.”
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