Thu, Feb-29-24, 01:32
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
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Ultra-processed food raises risk of cancer, diabetes — and depression
Quote:
Ultra-processed food raises risk of cancer, diabetes — and depression
Study shows link between mass-produced products and 32 damaging health outcomes
Eating lots of ultra-processed food may send you to an early grave and make you depressed and anxious, a review of evidence has concluded.
Mass-produced products such as ready meals, sugary breakfast cereal and chocolate bars are linked to 32 damaging health outcomes, according to a study in the British Medical Journal. This includes physical conditions, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, as well as mental health disorders including depression and anxiety.
Academics in Australia examined data from previous studies around the world involving nearly ten million people, who were divided into groups based on their intake of ultra-processed food. Those who ate the most were found to be at a 55 per cent greater risk of dying young, and a 21 per cent greater risk of dying from heart disease.
The study also found that the risk of mental health problems tended to increase the more such food people ate. It said high consumption was linked to a 22 per cent greater risk of depression, and about 50 per cent higher risk of anxiety and poor sleep. Experts believe this is because the foods may cause systemic inflammation in the body and disrupt the gut microbiome, which influences depression and anxiety risk.
Physical health problems including type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer and heart disease also increase along with consumption of the foods.
More than half of the typical British daily diet is made up of ultra-processed food, more than any other country in Europe. Campaigners including the author Dr Chris van Tulleken and the former government food tsar Henry Dimbleby are calling for tobacco-style restrictions to be introduced.
The study authors, from Deakin University, said that their findings showed the need for “population-based approaches” to minimise consumption of ultra-processed food.
In an editorial in the journal, Professor Carlos Monteiro, a Brazilian academic who devised the concept of ultra-processed food, said that “no reason exists to believe that humans can fully adapt” to the products, which are “often chemically manipulated cheap ingredients” and “made palatable and attractive by using combinations of flavours, colours, emulsifiers, thickeners, and other additives”.
He added: “It is now time for United Nations agencies, with member states, to develop and implement a framework convention on ultra-processed foods analogous to the framework on tobacco.”
The foods are made using industrial processes, including splitting whole foods into oils, fats and sugar then recombining them. They tend to be sold ready-made, low in nutrients and fibre, and packed with additives.
Scientists are divided about why they seem to be bad for health. Some believe that the industrial processing is itself inherently harmful and makes the food addictive. Others think the foods are simply tasty and high in calories, cautioning that it is important not to demonise all ultra-processed food, which can form part of a healthy diet.
People who eat lots of such foods also tend to have unhealthy lifestyles in general, making it hard to prove cause and effect.
Professor Martin Warren, chief scientific officer of the Quadram Institute in Norwich, which researches food and health, said the study reinforced the fact that “broadly speaking, certain ultra-processed foods are bad for human health”.
But he added: “There is a primary need to better understand the mechanistic processes at play that result in the damage to health and there remain problems associated with the definition of ultra-processed food.”
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...ssion-kk5n0gp8h |
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