Processed Foods Linked to Shorter Life Span, Study Finds

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Processed Foods Linked to Shorter Life Span, Study Finds - Everyday Health

The study focused on highly processed foods, such as ready-made meals, energy bars, and ice cream.

You might turn to the vending machine when hunger strikes, but a new study suggests ultraprocessed foods — those manufactured industrially with multiple ingredients and additives — may take years off your life.

The study, published on February 11, 2019, in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, used self-reported data from 44,551 participants in the French NutriNet-Santé Study, an ongoing study that started in 2009. Study participants shared their food logs over a median of 7.1 years. The mean age at the start was 56.7 years, and 73 percent of the participants were women.

In the study group, ultraprocessed foods accounted for almost 34 percent of participants’ average daily calorie intake. Researchers observed that a 10 percent increase in eating these types of foods was linked to a 14 percent higher risk of early death from any cause. In other words, study authors observed that when ultraprocessed foods were a bigger part of an individual’s diet, that person seemed to have an increased risk of early death.
 
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