Ultra-processed foods are linked to early death or heart disease

For many years health experts have been warning about the consumption of ultra-processed foods like savory snacks, frozen meals and soft drinks. A study while supporting the argument has been published on May 29, 2019 and has given a fresh evidence that it is better to avoid such ultra-processed food. The studies have appeared in the British Medical Journal, followed by groups of people over a period of time in France and Spain and found that people who ate more factory-made foods were at a greater risk of heart disease and early death respectively.

The condition has caused concern as such foods are becoming a larger part of people’s diets. Senior author of the Spanish study and professor of preventive medicine and public health at the Universidad de Navarra Maira Bes-Rastrollo wrote in an email to a leading daily, “Ultraprocessed foods already make up more than half of the total dietary energy consumed in high-income countries such as USA, Canada and the UK. In the case of Spain, consumption of ultraprocessed food almost tripled between 1990 and 2010.”

The study saw about 20,000 volunteers aged 20 to 91 between 1999 and 2014 while asking them detailed questions about the food they ate every two years. It was found that people who ate more than four servings a day of highly-processed foods were 62 percent more likely to die early. The risk went up 18 percent for every extra serving of factory made food that they consumed.

The study had showed results that agreed with other studies in France and the US and also lent support to the idea that ultra-processed food diets actually cause ill health. Another study had followed more than 105,000 people over five years and found that for every ten percent increase in the amount of ultra-processed foods someone consumed, their risk of heart attack or other cardiovascular disease increased around 12 percent.

Photo Credits: Pixabay