(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists from Brazil have concluded that the frequent consumption of ultra-processed foods (UP), which include sausages, breakfast cereals, cookies, chips, fruit juices and many other foods with a long shelf life, can provoke premature death.
Many of the foods we are familiar with are ultra-processed. In addition to the above, these are reconstituted meat products, industrial bread, soft drinks, canned soups, frozen pizza, store-bought hot dogs, donuts, sweets, and more.
All of them are formulations of substances derived from industrial products (trans fats, sugars, starches, protein isolates) that contain little or no whole food ingredients and are often loaded with a heavy dose of flavors, colors, emulsifiers and other additives.
Scientists from the University of São Paulo and other scientific organizations in Brazil said that there are few studies that have examined the relationship between the consumption of all such foods and premature mortality.
To estimate baseline consumption of ultra-processed foods by sex and age group, the researchers modeled data from Brazil’s 2017-2018 nationally representative dietary surveys and 2019 demographic mortality information.
It turned out that in all age groups and in both sexes, the consumption of CP varied from 13 to 21 percent of the total food intake.
In addition, scientists found that in 2019, 541,160 people aged 30 to 69 died prematurely. Of these, 261,061 deaths were due to preventable non-communicable diseases.
Modeling showed that about 57,000 of these deaths could be attributed to the consumption of ultra-pasteurized foods, which corresponds to 10.5 percent of all premature deaths (aged 30 to 69 years) and 21.8 percent of deaths from preventable noncommunicable diseases.
The researchers suggest that in high-income countries, such as the UK, Canada and the US, these figures will be even higher. In addition, scientists have calculated that reducing consumption of CP by 10-50 percent could prevent 5,900 to 29,300 premature deaths in Brazil each year.
Why are ultra-pasteurized foods so dangerous? The answer to this question is quite simple: scientists associate their use with the development of diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer and others.
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