Ultra-Processed Foods Linked to 32 Physical and Mental Health Problems

INCLUDING PROTEIN BARS –

Feb. 29, 2024 – Research involving almost 10 million people has found a direct association between eating too many ultra-processed foods — those breads, cereals, snacks and frozen meals that have been industrially manufactured with flavors and additives to make them more palatable — and more than 30 health conditions, including heart disease, anxiety and early death.

In recent years, dozens of studies have found that people who consume a lot of ultra-processed foods have higher rates of weight gain, obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

Now, a team of international researchers has undertaken a comprehensive review of the evidence on adverse health outcomes to date — examining 45 “pooled meta-analyses” from 14 review articles involving nearly 10 million people. All were published in the past three years, and none was funded by companies making ultra-processed food.

The researchers’ findings, published in the British medical journal BMJ, “show that diets high in ultra-processed food may be harmful to many body systems.”

They found “convincing evidence” that higher ultra-processed food intake was associated with about a 50 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease-related death, a 48 to 53 percent higher risk of anxiety and common mental disorders, and a 12 percent greater risk of Type 2 diabetes.