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Two major European studies published by The bmj find today positive badociations between the consumption of highly processed ("ultra processed") foods and the risk of cardiovascular disease and death.
The researchers say more work is needed to better understand these effects, and a direct (causal) link remains to be established, but they call for policies that encourage the consumption of fresh or low-processed foods over highly processed foods. .
Ultra-processed foods include packaged bakery and snack products, soft drinks, sweetened cereals, prepared foods containing food additives, dehydrated vegetable soups and reconstituted meat and fish products, often containing high in sugar, fat and / or salt. lack of vitamins and fiber It is thought that they represent about 25 to 60% of the daily energy intake in many countries.
Previous studies had badociated ultra-processed foods with higher risks of obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol and some cancers, but evidence is still scarce.
In the first study, researchers based in France and Brazil evaluated the potential badociations between ultra-processed foods and the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (conditions affecting the blood supply to the heart and brain).
Their findings are based on 105,159 French adults (21% male, 79% female), aged 43 on average, who completed an average of six 24-hour dietary questionnaires to measure the usual intake of 3,300 different foods as part of NutriNet. -Health study.
Foods were grouped according to degree of transformation and disease rates were measured over a maximum follow-up of 10 years (2009-2018).
The results showed that an absolute increase of 10% in the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet was badociated with significantly higher rates of global cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease (increase by 12%, 13% and 11% respectively). ).
In contrast, researchers found a significant badociation between unprocessed or unprocessed foods and the risk reduction of all reported diseases.
In the second study, researchers based in Spain evaluated the possible badociations between ultra-processed food consumption and the risk of death, whatever the cause ("all-cause mortality").
Their findings are based on 19,899 Spanish university graduates (7,786 men, 12,113 women), aged 38 on average, who completed a food questionnaire of 136 questions as part of the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) study.
Again, foods were grouped according to degree of transformation and deaths were measured over an average of 10 years.
The results showed that higher consumption of ultra-processed foods (more than 4 servings per day) was badociated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality of 62% compared to lower consumption ( less than 2 servings a day). For each additional daily portion of ultra-processed foods, the risk of death has increased by 18% (dose-response effect).
Both studies are observational, so it is impossible to establish a causality and it is possible that some of the observed risks are due to unmeasured confounders.
Nevertheless, both studies took into account well-known lifestyle risk factors and food quality indicators, and the results confirm other research badociating highly processed foods with poor health.
As such, both research teams report that policies that limit the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet and encourage the consumption of unprocessed or unprocessed foods are needed to improve health. world public.
Australian researchers, in an badociated editorial, support this view, saying that dietary advice is relatively simple: eat less ultra-processed foods and more unprocessed or little processed foods.
According to them, future research should explore the badociations between ultra-processed foods and the adverse health effects of different populations around the world, and examine the adverse effects (for example by modifying the intestinal microbiome so as to disrupt the life of the animals. energy balance).
In the meantime, policy makers "should refocus their priorities on food reformulation – which would risk positioning ultra-processed foods as a solution to food problems – with a greater focus on promoting the availability, availability and availability of food. "Economic accessibility and accessibility of unprocessed or poorly processed foods," they conclude.
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Peer reviewed? Yes (research) No (related editorial)
Type of evidence: observational; Opinion
Topics: People
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