Older adults who ate the most ultraprocessed foods had a high risk of cognitive impairment, a large longitudinal study showed.A high intake of minimally processed foods was associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment.The study was observational and diet was self-reported, but the findings were consistent with other research about ultraprocessed foods and brain health.
People who consumed the most ultraprocessed foods -- sugar-sweetened drinks, packaged snacks, or processed meats, for example -- were more likely to develop a composite outcome of dementia or cognitive impairment compared with those who ate the least, a large longitudinal study of older U.S. adults showed.
Compared with the lowest quintile of ultraprocessed food consumption, those who ate the most ultraprocessed foods were 58% more likely to develop dementia (HR 1.58, 95% CI 1.00-2.48) over nearly 9 years, although the linear trend across quintiles was not significant, reported Heejin Lee, PhD, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and co-authors.
People who ate the most ultraprocessed foods were 46% more likely to have incident mild cognitive impairment (HR 1.46, 95% CI 1.13-1.88, P for trend=0.03), and 47% more likely to develop either one of those outcomes (HR 1.47, 95% CI 1.16-1.87, P for trend=0.02), Lee and colleagues reported in the American Journal of Public Health.
