Higher consumption of ultraprocessed foods may accelerate biological aging

Key takeaways:

• Biological age increased by 2.4 months for every 10% increase in ultraprocessed food intake.
• These results may have significant impacts on mortality, morbidity and disability, researchers noted.

Increased intake of ultraprocessed foods may be linked to accelerated biological aging, according to results from a cross-sectional study published in Age and Ageing.

Specifically, just adding an extra 200 calories of ultraprocessed foods to the standard diet of 2,000 calories a day could increase the biological aging process by over 2 months, the researchers said.

“The significance of our findings is tremendous,” Barbara Rita Cardoso, PhD, a nutritional biochemist at Monash University in Australia, said in a press release.

“Our findings show that reducing ultraprocessed food consumption in the diet may help slow the biological aging trajectory, bringing another reason to target ultraprocessed foods when considering strategies to promote healthy ageing.”

The negative links between ultraprocessed foods and health outcomes have been well established, with multiple studies tying the foods to CVD, greater mortality risk and obesity.

In the cross-sectional study, the researchers looked at how biological aging correlated with UPF intake within a cohort of 16,055 participants aged 20 to 79 years (51% women) from the 2003 to 2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Researchers assessed diet quality among participants using the Healthy Eating Index 2015 and American Heart Association 2020, whereas biological aging was assessed with the PhenoAge algorithm.

Cardoso and colleagues found that every 10% increase in ultraprocessed food consumption corresponded to a 0.21 (95% CI, 0.16-0.26) year increase, or 2.4 months, in biological age.

Participants in the highest quintile of ultraprocessed food consumption — of whom 68% to 100% of their diet comprised ultraprocessed food — had a biological age 0.86 (95% CI, 0.55-1.16) years older vs. those in the lowest quintile of consumption, of whom 39% or less of their diet came from ultraprocessed foods.

These associations remained significant, even after researchers adjusted for diet quality and total energy intake, and appeared somewhat stronger in older adults, “which highlights the potential role of nutrition in promoting healthy aging and preventing age-related diseases,” Cardoso and colleagues wrote.

The researchers pointed out that adherence to a healthy diet moderately attenuated the association between ultra-processed food intake and biological aging (adjusted B =0.14 for every 10% increment of ultraprocessed food).

The researchers identified several study limitations. For example, over 25% of energy intake may have been misreported, whereas food intake estimates may not have reflected usual diets.

Cardoso and colleagues explained that the effect size of 2.4 months may appear small, but “it holds significant public health implications.”

“Based on previous research on PhenoAge's links to morbidity, disability and mortality, this rise predicts nearly 2% more mortality, 0.75% more incident disability and 0.5% more incident chronic disease over 2 years,” they wrote.

They also highlighted possible contributors to the relationship between ultraprocessed foods and biological aging, which may include lower intake of flavonoids or phytoestrogens or higher intake of bisphenol, phthalates “or compounds formed during processing such as acrylamides.”

Ultimately, the information “reinforces the need for dietary-focused public health strategies to prolong a healthy life span,” the researchers concluded.

References:

Cardoso B, et al. Age Ageing. 2024;doi:10.1093/ageing/afae268.
Ultra-processed foods associated with faster biological ageing. Available at: https://www.monash.edu/vic-heart-institute/news/2024-articles/ultra-processed-foods-associated-with-faster-biological-ageing. Published Dec. 27, 2024. Accessed Dec. 27, 2024.