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Concerns about the health effects of ultra-processed foods are growing, as studies increasingly link them to conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and even early death. But scientists are still debating what’s driving those risks: the nutritional quality of these foods—which are often high in saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars—or the industrial processing and additives used to make them.
A new study from researchers at the Food is Medicine Institute at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, published in American Journal of Public Health, suggests the processing itself may play an independent role. The researchers found that people who ate more ultra-processed foods had worse health outcomes, even after accounting for the overall nutritional quality of the foods.
“The findings suggest ultra-processed-food factors beyond nutrients—such as changes to foods’ cellular structure, loss of beneficial chemical compounds, additives, and chemicals from packaging—may create health risks not addressed by traditional nutrition metrics or policies,” said the study’s senior author, Dariush Mozaffarian, cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute.
