Fang Fang Zhang, co-lead author of one of the studies, said ultra-processed foods are often ready-to-eat or heat-up industrial concoctions created with components extracted from food or synthesized in laboratories.
Here’s something that may not come as a surprise: Eating a lot of ultra-processed foods is not good for your health.
According to CNN, Two new large studies of people in the United States and Italy published this week in The BMJ (British Medical Journal) found that eating large amounts of ultra-processed foods can cause heart disease and premature death in both men and women. These foods include sauces, frozen pizza, hot dogs, French fries, cookies, cakes, candy, donuts, and ice cream.
“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. CNN reported.
Nestlé, which was not involved in any of the studies, is also the author of numerous books on food marketing and policy. “These two studies remain consistent: ultra-processed foods are unambiguously associated with an increased risk of chronic disease,” he noted.
the US-based study analyzed the diets of more than 200,000 men and women for up to 28 years and found a link between ultra-processed foods and colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer in the country, in men but not women, according to CNN.
Several organizations, including the American Cancer Society, have also found that eating processed and ultra-processed meats, such as ham, bacon, salami, and sausage, has long been linked to an increased risk of developing bowel cancer in both men and women .
But the latest research found that all forms of ultra-processed food contributed in some way.
“We found that men in the highest quintile of ultra-processed food consumption, compared to those in the lowest quintile, had a 29% higher risk of developing colorectal cancer,” said co-senior author Fang Fang Zhang, a cancer epidemiologist and chair in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston.
Zhang also noted that men were more likely to have a higher risk of bowel cancer if they ate a lot of ready-to-eat foods, as well as drinks with added sugar.
These ultra-processed foods, Zhang explained, are typically ready-to-eat industrial preparations or heat concoctions created with components extracted from food or synthesized in laboratories, typically containing little or no whole foods. They are also a large part of diets in the United States.
“Americans consume a large percentage of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods: 58% in adults and 67% in children,” Zhang said, CNN reported. “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.”
It’s not clear why the study found a lower incidence of colorectal cancer in women, but Zhang said it could be due to the varying roles of obesity, gender and metabolic hormones in men and women. She also said the study found that eating more ultra-processed dairy products, such as yogurt, was linked to a lower risk of colorectal cancer in women.
the second study, which began in 2005, tracked more than 22,000 people over a 12-year period in the Italian province of Molise. Their initial goal was to assess risk factors for heart and brain disease, as well as cancer.
It measured the effects of nutrient-poor diets, such as those high in sugar and saturated or trans fat, versus ultra-processed food diets on chronic disease and premature death. The BMJ analysis revealed that both types of diets contributed to premature death, specifically from cardiovascular problems.
However, first author and epidemiologist Marialaura Bonaccio of the IRCCS Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed in Pozzilli, Italy, said that when the researchers looked at the two types of food to see which contributed more, they found that ultra-processed foods were “primary in defining the mortality risk”.
Eighty percent or more of the meals labeled nutritionally unsafe were also ultra-processed, according to a statement from Bonaccio, CNN reported.
“This suggests that the increased mortality risk 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,” Bonaccio said.
Dr. Robin Mendelsohn, a gastroenterologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, who was also not involved in either study, suggests a complete break from ultra-processed foods.
“While some ultra-processed foods may be considered healthier than others, in general, we would recommend staying away from ultra-processed foods altogether and focusing on healthy unprocessed foods — fruits, vegetables, legumes,” he told CNN.
TheGrio is FREE on your TV through Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Also, download theGrio mobile applications This day!
The charge Studies link premature death and cancer to ultra-processed foods first appeared in elgrio.
