A decades-long study examining the risks of ultra-processed foods is corroborating what other studies have revealed: Processed meats and sugary drinks aren't doing our bodies any favors.
What's happening?
As detailed by the New York Times, around 73% of the food supply in the United States consists of ultra-processed foods, from soda and candy to yogurts and breakfast cereals.
After monitoring more than 200,000 adults over roughly 30 years, adjusting for risk factors like family health history, sleep habits, and exercise, and combining their analysis with 19 other studies, researchers discovered a worrying connection to heart problems.
People who ate the most ultra-processed foods were 17% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and 23% more likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease.
Sugary drinks like soda and processed meats like hot dogs and breaded fish products were the riskiest items. Study lead and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health postdoctoral researcher Kenny Mendoza told the Times the risk associated with ultra-processed foods significantly decreased when researchers excluded those categories from analysis.
New York University professor of public health nutrition Niyati Parekh noted to the Times how the work, published in the Lancet, is "one of the most robust studies" of its type because of its size and regular check-ins with participants.
However, she explained that it had some limitations, including the fact that most of the participants were white and educated about nutrition. Additionally, some ingredients in processed foods may have changed over the course of the analysis, and researchers had to identify how foods were likely processed after they logged them.
Why is this important?
Beyond the numerous studies indicating that many ultra-processed foods come with health risks, environmentalists have raised concerns about their impact on the planet.
One Australian study cited by the Lancet Planetary Health found that ultra-processed meat was the ultra-processed food accounting for the most planet-warming pollution.
The analysis also connected ultra-processed foods with damage to biodiverse ecosystems, including in Brazil, where the collection of palm oil (a common ingredient in ultra-processed foods) has contributed to deforestation in the Amazon.
Meanwhile, a joint report from the American Heart Association and the University of California Research Consortium found that sugary drinks (often sold in polluting plastic) required more than 40 gallons of water to produce just one liter, with the pollution generated during manufacturing 81 times greater compared to one liter of tap water.
What can be done about this?
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health associate professor of nutrition Josiemer Mattei explained to the Times that researchers are still determining which ultra-processed foods may have minimal or no risk, comparing studies on the matter to decades-old investigations into which fats are most healthy or harmful.
However, Dr. Mattei noted how research has consistently flagged processed meats and sugary drinks as a health risk, so reducing or eliminating those items in our diets makes sense. Moreover, eating more plant-based meals and shopping more mindfully at the grocery store isn't just good for our health but also our wallets.
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