Eating more ultraprocessed foods is linked to a higher risk of cognitive decline and stroke, even if a person is trying to adhere to a Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet or the MIND diet, a new study found.
All three diets are plant-based, focused on consuming more
fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and seeds while limiting
sugar, red meat and ultraprocessed foods.
“If you increased your ultraprocessed food
intake by 10% in the study, it increased your risk of cognitive
impairment by 16%,” said cardiologist Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of
cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in
Denver. He was not involved in the study.
“You can always extrapolate and say, ‘Well, if someone
increases their ultraprocessed food consumption by 100%, then they have
160% chance of cognitive impairment,’” he said. “Of course, this study
can only show an association, not a direct cause and effect.”
On the flip side, eating more unprocessed or minimally
processed foods was linked with a 12% lower risk of cognitive
impairment, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Neurology.
Unprocessed foods include fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs and milk. Minimally processed foods
include culinary ingredients such as salt, herbs and oils and foods
such as canned goods and frozen vegetables that combine culinary
ingredients with unprocessed foods.
Ultraprocessed foods include prepackaged soups, sauces,
frozen pizza, ready-to-eat meals and pleasure foods such as hot dogs,
sausages, French fries, sodas, store-bought cookies, cakes, candies,
doughnuts, ice cream and many more.(EXACT EXAMPLES!)
Such foods are typically high in calories, added sugar and
salt and low in fiber, all of which can contribute to cardiometabolic
health problems, weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes and high blood
pressure, experts say.
The study analyzed data on 30,000 people participating in
the REGARD, or REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke
study, made up of 50% Whites and 50% Blacks in a nationally diverse
group of people who have been followed for up to 20 years.
The risk of stroke was 8% higher for people who added the
most ultraprocessed foods to their diet as compared with those who ate
minimally processed foods, said study author and neurologist Dr. W.
Taylor Kimberly, chief of the division of neurocritical care at
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
That risk rose to 15% for Black participants, likely due to
the impact of ultraprocessed foods on high blood pressure in that
population, Kimberly said. However, if a person ate more unprocessed or
minimally processed foods, the risk of stroke dropped by 9%, the study
found.
What is it about ultraprocessed foods that may allow them to
sabotage efforts to follow a healthy diet? It could be their poor
nutrient composition and tendency to spike blood sugars, which can lead
to type 2 diabetes, obesity, elevated blood pressure and high
cholesterol, said Peipei Gao and Zhendong Mei in an editorial published with the study.
Mei is a research fellow in medicine at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital in Boston, while Gao is a graduate student in nutrition
visiting Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, also in Boston.
Neither was involved in the study.
Type 2 diabetes, obesity, elevated blood pressure and high
cholesterol are all key risk factors for vascular disease in the heart
and brain, they wrote.
The impact on blood vessels that leads to stroke and
cognitive decline may also be due “to the presence of additives
including emulsifiers, colorants, sweeteners, and nitrates/nitrites,
which have been associated with disruptions in the gut microbial
ecosystem and inflammation,” they added.
Studies on the dangers of eating ultraprocessed foods are piling up. According to a February review of 45 meta-analyses on almost 10 million people, eating 10% more ultraprocessed foods raised the risk of developing or dying from dozens of adverse health conditions.
That 10% increase was considered “baseline,” and adding even
more ultraprocessed foods might increase the risk, experts say.
There was strong evidence that a higher intake of
ultraprocessed foods was associated with about a 50% higher risk of
cardiovascular disease-related death and common mental disorders,
according to the review.
Researchers also found highly suggestive evidence that
eating more ultraprocessed foods raised the risk of obesity by 55%,
sleep disorders by 41%, development of type 2 diabetes by 40% and the
risk of depression by 20%.
“We really need to put a sign in the ultraprocessed food
section, or on the packaging like they do on cigarettes, saying,
‘Warning, this food may be detrimental to your health,’” Freeman said.
“What we think of as ‘convenient food’ really needs to
change from a package of chips to an apple or carrot that is also
shelf-stable and can travel in your purse or backpack,” he said. “And we
need to make that kind of stuff more readily available, especially to
our kids and in food deserts where often all the available food is
ultraprocessed.”
