Not all ultra-processed foods cause cancer, heart disease and diabetes, a new study has found. According to the research, while the regular consumption of meat products and sugary drinks increases the risk of the aforementioned diseases, bread and cereals — despite being ultra-processed foods — reduce such risks because they contain fibre.
Published in The Lancet, the research also stated that sauces, spreads and condiments aren’t the healthiest of options for humans, but they aren’t as bad as animal products and soft drinks.
Among other ultra-processed foods, including sweets and desserts, ready meals, savoury snacks and plant-based alternatives to meat — previously thought to be harmful — are “not associated with risk of multimorbidity”, said the authors of the study.
At least 266,666 people from seven European countries, with 60% of women, participated in the study.
To treat all ultra-processed foods as bad for health was unwise and unwarranted, experts say.
According to the authors, higher consumption of UPF was associated with a higher risk of “multimorbidity of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases”.
To prevent cancer and cardiometabolic multimorbidity, the authors suggested people replace some but not all ultra-processed foods with “similar but less processed foods” or follow the Mediterranean diet.
The study stresses that it was not necessary to completely give up on the ultra-processed foods, Heinz Freisling, a co-author of the paper. “Their consumption should be limited, and preference be given to fresh or minimally processed foods,” Freisling, who is also an expert at the World Health Organization’s cancer research agency IARC, which collaborated on the study, added.
The research showed that consumers need to have easy access to fresh and less-processed foods, according to Reynalda Cordova, who led the study and works at both IARC and the University of Vienna.
Dr Ian Johnson, a nutrition researcher and emeritus fellow at the Quadram Institute, said the study “helps us understand ultra-processed foods that were and were not harmful.”
“These observations do suggest a role for some UPF in the onset of multiple chronic diseases. But they also show that the common assumption that all UPF foods are linked to adverse health events is probably wrong,” Dr Johnson said.