A new, unpublished study of over
500,000 people followed almost three decades ago shows that higher intakes
of ultra-processed food are linked to shortened
lifespans by over 10% to authors.
It increased to 15% among men and
14% among women when the data was adjusted, said the study’s lead author Erikka
Loftfield, an investigator at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda,
Maryland.
Responding to the questionnaire
regarding their intake of 124 foods people in the upper 90th percentile of
ultraprocessed foods consumption affirmed that the most common were overly
processed drinks.
“Speaking of the overconsumption
of UPFs, diet soft drinks comprised the largest share of it,” Loftfield said. A
very vital component of the diet and the inclusion of ultra-processed food is
drinks.
Closely trailing the sugary foods
in popularity were refined grains like ultra-processed breads and baked
products as established by the study.
‘This is yet one more large,
long-duration POS (prospective observational study) showing the dependency of
the CM (cohort mortality) on; UPF (ultra-processed food) consumption and
specifically, the increase in death rates due to cardiovascular diseases and
T2DM (type 2 diabetes mellitus),’ said Carlos Monteiro, Professor Emeritus,
Nutrition and Population Health, University of São Paulo, Brazil, in an email
Monteiro named the category ultra-processed
food and developed the NOVA food system that goes beyond nutrients to how they
are processed. These authors in particular, although some members of the NOVA
classification system were coauthors, Monteiro was not involved in the study.
The NOVA classification system
divides foods from fresh or only slightly processed foods, which are real foods
such as beans and carrots, to ultra-processed foods like deli meat and sausage.
Food sources that are characterized under the super handled classification
comprise of fixings that are "never or seldom utilized in kitchens, or
classes of added substances whose capability is to make the eventual outcome
agreeable or frequently seriously engaging" as seen by the Food and
Farming Association of the Unified Countries.
More of it contains preservatives to discourage mold
and bacteria; emulsifying agents, to prevent infrequent mixing components;
artificial coloring and dye; anti-foaming agents, bulking, bleaching, gelling,
and glazing agents; and modified or replaced sugar, salt, and fats making the
foods appealing.
Chronic Health Risks Associated with Processed Meats
And Soft Drinks.
The initial research, delivered at the meeting of the American
Society for Nutrition in Chicago on Sunday, used the data on nutrition from
1995 collected among almost 541 thousand Americans from 50 to 71 who took part
in the US National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study.
Authors correlate the information about daily diet
with the death rates during the next 20-30 years. Those at the top end of ultra-processed
food consumption were more likely to die from cardiac or diabetic causes than
the bottom 10% of consumers, the findings showed. Despite that, contrary to
other experimental findings, there were no enhancements in the cancer-related
death rate discovered by the researchers.
Some ultra-processed foods carried more of a risk than
others, Loft-field said: The paper highlighted that highly processed meat and
soft drinks were two of the subgroups of ultra-processed food most directly
linked to the likelihood of death.
Soda and other diet beverages are also classified as
UPF because they contain additives like aspartame, acesulfame potassium,
stevia, and other ingredients aside from their whole-food counterparts. These
beverages contribute to weight gain and boost the risk of death attributable
to cardiovascular disease as well as dementia, and type 2
diabetes, acting as a precursor for obesity, stroke,
and metabolic syndrome that causes both heart disease and diabetes.
The American guidelines for diets already discourage the
drinking of sugar-added drinks because they have been pointed out to lead to
early deaths and chronic diseases. Women who consumed more than two servings a
day of sugary beverages which includes a glass, bottle, or a can had a 63%
higher risk of early death compared to the women who consumed them rarely,
according to a study carried out in early March 2019. Those who did the same by
men increased to 29 percent.
Bacon, hot dogs, sausages, ham, corned beef, jerky, or
any deli meats are also discouraged due to the relationship between red &
processed meats and cancers namely bowel & stomach cancer, heart disease,
diabetes & premature deaths at any given age.
“The data of the present study points to processed
meat as an unhealthy food while people do not categorize ham or chicken nuggets
as UPF (ultra-processed food),” commented Green in a statement. She did
not participate in the study.
The research revealed that a high level of ultra-processed
food consumption was sighted in young people with high weight indices, and had
less dietary quality compared to those who consumed less ultra-processed foods.
However, the higher health risk could not be attributed to these differences
since the same risks of early death from ultra-processed foods were also noted
in people of normal weight, with better diets included.
Specialists have estimated that the intake of ultra-processed
foods has probably increased twice the level of the present research.
“The kind of studies which use food classification
systems that are based on the degree of processing like NOVA should, therefore,
be regarded as questionable,” Carla Saunders, the president of the Calorie
Control Council, an industry affiliation, stated in an e-mail interview.
“Proposing that they're much valued non- and
low-calorie containing foods such as beverages should be banished as addictive
to the human population with documented health-enhancing effects including
control of obesity and diabetes-related diseases as unsafe and requisite to the
population is perhaps one of the most outrageous suggestions that I have come
across,” Saunders shared.
Results May Underestimate Risk
One key limitation of the study was that the dietary data was gathered only once some 30 years ago, Green said: “It might be rather challenging to speak about how people’s diet has transformed over time from that time to the present. ”
‘The mid-1990s saw an unprecedented rise in the
production of ultra-processed foods although ultra-processed food consumption
seems to have reached almost 60% of the Average daily calories consumed by
Americans. It is not astonishing then that up to 70% of foods in any
supermarket are ultra-processed.
“Indeed, based
on our results, we are likely underestimating the consumption of ultra-processed
foods because we are playing it safe,” Loft-field said. “One can only imagine
that, if anything, the intake is likely to have only grown over the years.”
Interestingly,
a May study that came to similar conclusions — a heightened risk
of early mortality and death attributable to cardiovascular events among
120,000-plus participants who consumed ultra-processed foods — assessed ultra-processed
food consumption every four years and reported that the amount in people’s diet
had doubled between the mid-1980s and 2018.
For instance, ‘consumption of unnecessary packaged
savory snacks and dairy-based desserts like ice cream, has almost reached the
double of the ‘90s and this has contributed to its negative nutritional value’,
opined Dr. Mingyang Song a leading author of the May study and a clinical
epidemiology and nutrition faculty at Harvard University’s The Chan School of
Public Health. “In the previous study
and in this new one, the major source of the positive findings was a few
subcategories such as processed meats and SSBs or ASBs”, however, Song said
this. “However, all categories of UPFs were found to have a direct relationship
with the risk.”
There is little that can be done about ultra-processed
foods, said Loft-field, though, a good start is selecting more minimally
processed foods.
In her statement, she noted that what we should be
aiming at is diets that come with whole foods. “And if the food is ultra-processed,
then look to see the levels of sodium and added sugars, and try to make the
best decision possible noticing the nutrition facts label.”
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