Study shows link between ultraprocessed foods and mortality risk
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Those with the highest intake of ultraprocessed foods faced a 17% increase in CVD mortality and a 16% increase in all-cause mortality.
- There was no link between ultraprocessed foods and cancer mortality.
Higher intake of ultraprocessed foods was linked to higher risks for CVD and all-cause mortality, according to the results of research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Yingying Zhao, MD, of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in Wuhan, China, and colleagues wrote that a widespread increase in ultraprocessed food intake has sparked concern about its potential adverse health effects.
“However, the causal relationship between ultraprocessed food consumption and cause-specific mortality, such as cancer mortality and CVD mortality, is debatable,” they wrote.
So, the researchers conducted a pooled analysis of three large prospective cohorts to learn more about the associations between ultraprocessed food and mortality.
The analysis included 41,070 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2018), 208,051 adults from the UK Biobank database (2006-2010) and 108,714 adults from the United States in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (1993-2001). The researchers collected dietary data from questionnaires and used the NOVA system to classify foods based on their level of processing.
Zhao and colleagues found that higher intake of ultraprocessed foods was linked to a higher risk for CVD mortality and all-cause mortality, and several metabolic pathways played mediating roles.
Specifically, the pooled analysis revealed that those who consumed the most ultraprocessed foods had higher risks of CVD mortality (HR = 1.17; 95% CI, 1.06-1.28) and all-cause mortality (HR = 1.16; 95% CI, 1.11-1.2), compared with those who ate the least amount of ultraprocessed foods.
In other words, those with the highest intake of ultraprocessed foods experienced a 17% increase in CVD mortality and a 16% increase in all-cause mortality compared with those who had the lowest intake.
However, consumption of ultraprocessed foods was not linked to cancer mortality risk.
Zhao and colleagues also found that biomarkers of inflammation had the most significant mediating effects on CVD mortality (29.2%) and biomarkers of liver function had the most significant mediating effects on all-cause mortality (20.3%).
“The proportion of the associations mediated by biological pathways of renal function, liver function, inflammation, lipid metabolism, and glucose metabolism ranged from 12.4% to 20.3% for all-cause mortality and 18% to 29.2% for CVD mortality,” they wrote. “It is worth mentioning that the mediation effect of liver function biomarkers in the association of [ultraprocessed food] consumption and mortality was proposed for the first time, an association which is supported by previously studied links of [ultraprocessed food] consumption with higher levels of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)-related biomarkers and increased risk of NAFLD.”
Perspective
Back to Top
These findings corroborate the existing epidemiological evidence regarding the detrimental impact of ultraprocessed foods on health, especially concerning mortality and the risk of cardiovascular disease. This article is part of a growing body of literature that has consistently warned the public about the connection between ultraprocessed food consumption and the development of noncommunicable diseases. The substitution of ultraprocessed foods with unprocessed or minimally processed foods has been linked to a notable reduction in mortality risk, underscoring its pivotal role in public health strategies. This highlights the pressing need for the development of fresh nutritional policies and guidelines aimed at curbing ultraprocessed food intake while promoting the consumption of healthier, less processed and whole foods. Prioritizing unprocessed foods in dietary choices is imperative in order to alleviate the financial and health care burden associated with preventable diseases.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts