A recent cross-sectional study by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, found that increased consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) such as chocolates, chips, and instant noodles causes consumers to age faster.
Published in the journal ‘Age and Ageing’, the study revealed that for every 10 per cent increase in UPFs consumption, participants were 0.21 years biologically older. The study gathered data from 16,055 people from the US aged 20-79.
UPFs include ice cream, carbonated drinks, biscuits, ready-to-eat meals, sausages, burgers, chicken and fish nuggets, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, and energy bars.
First author Dr Barbara Cardoso from Monash University’s Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food and Monash Victorian Heart Institute said the association between UPFs and markers of biological ageing was understudied, despite the adverse health effects of UPFs.
“The significance of our findings is tremendous, as our predictions show that for every 10 per cent increase in ultra-processed food consumption there is a nearly two per cent increased risk of mortality and 0.5 per cent risk of incident chronic disease over two years,” she said.
The study indicated that the association could be due to other factors such as lower intake of flavonoids or phytoestrogens, which occur in natural foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables, or higher exposure to packaging chemicals and compounds formed during food processing.
“Our findings show that reducing ultra-processed foods in the diet may help slow the biological ageing trajectory, bringing another reason to target ultra-processed foods when considering strategies to promote healthy ageing,” Cardoso said, stressing the importance of eating as many unprocessed and minimally processed foods as possible.