ATLANTA, GEORGIA — The quick and easy noshes you love are chipping away at your mortality one nibble at a time, according to new research from France: We face a 14 percent higher risk of early death with each 10 percent increase in the amount of ultraprocessed foods we eat.
“Ultraprocessed foods are manufactured industrially from multiple ingredients that usually include additives used for technological and/or cosmetic purposes,” wrote the authors of the study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. “Ultraprocessed foods are mostly consumed in the form of snacks, desserts, or ready-to-eat or -heat meals,” and their consumption “has largely increased during the past several decades.”
This trend may drive an increase of early deaths due to chronic illnesses, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, they say.
Ultraprocessed foods are gaining ground in our diets
In the United States, 61 percent of an adult’s total diet comes from ultraprocessed foods, in Canada, it is 62 percent, and in the UK, that proportion is 63 percent, a recent study found. Yet research also indicates that eating ultraprocessed foods can lead to obesity, high […]
When we eat/live a whole foods plant-based diet/lifestyle, we become healthier, lose excess weight and feel good about those decisions. Whole means unprocessed. All the body requires can be found in plants, save B12 which is found in an inexpensive pill. For those of us who overwinter up north, D also comes in a useful pill.