Association Between Ultra-Processed Food Intake and All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption have increased in the world during the last decades since they are hyper-palatable, cheap and ready-to-consume products. However, uncertainty exists on their impact on health. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the association of UPF consumption with the all-cause mortality risk. Five bibliographic databases were searched for relevant studies. Random effects models were used to calculate pooled relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Of 6,951 unique citations, 40 unique prospective cohort studies comprising 5,750,133 individuals were included. Publication date of the included studies ranged from 1984 to2021. Compared to low consumption, highest consumption of UPF (RR=1.29, 95% CI 1.17-1.42), sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) (RR=1.11, 95% CI, 1.04-1.18), artificially sweetened beverages (ASB) (RR=1.14, 95% CI, 1.05-1.22) and processed meat/red meat (RR=1.15, 95% CI, 1.10-1.21) were significantly associated with increased risk of mortality. On the contrary, breakfast cereals were associated with a lower mortality risk (RR=0.85, 95% CI, 0.79-0.92). Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggests that high consumption of UPF, SSB, ASB, processed meat and processed red meat might increase all-cause mortality, while breakfast cereals might decrease it. Future studies are needed to address lack of standardized methods in UPF categorization.

GroceryDB: Prevalence of Processed Food in Grocery Stores

“…A sheer number of peer-review articles have been published on the topic of ultraprocessing, embodying a general degree of consensus among independent academic researchers on the health relevance of ultra-processed food [57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. However, a precise definition for ultra-processed food, informing effective reformulation strategies, has yet to be achieved [26].…”

Environmental impacts associated with UPF consumption: which food chain stages matter the most?Findings from a representative sample of French adults

“…Studies that have explored the environmental pressures of UPF in details are very limited and none of them considered the details of the post-agricultural stages, even though this element is essential to accurately assess environmental impacts of such foods. In addition to potential human health benefits (4,7–13), the reduction of high UPF consumption, associated with a greater overall consumption, could be a driver in the transition towards a more sustainable food system by contributing to the reduction of GHGe, energy demand, land use, soil and water degradation, and pollution. In addition, it has been documented that production of UPF is also associated with the use of fertilizers and pesticides, deforestation and biodiversity loss as well as packaging (2,19,43,44).…”

“…This literature is broadly growing, leading to the first reviews and meta-analyses summarizing findings from prospective studies and consistently showing associations between UPF consumption and increased risk of many non-communicable diseases (4,(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). Most of the studies are based on the NOVA classification distinguishing unprocessed, minimally processed, processed and ultra-processed foods (6).…”

Ultra-Processed Food Addiction: An Epidemic?

“…Research has not only linked UPFs to obesity and allcause mortality [25,26], but UPFs are also the predominant food type consumed during binge episodes [11,24,[27][28][29][30][31][32]. A review of food diaries of individuals with eating disorders found that 100% of the foods consumed in binge episodes were UPFs [33].…”