Diets high in ultraprocessed food significantly increase the risk of dementia, according to a new study.
The study, published last week in The American Journal of Public Health, revealed that those who eat the most ultraprocessed food had a 58% higher risk of developing dementia and a 46% increased risk of developing cognitive impairment, compared to those who consumed the least.
The study followed 5,300 US adults aged 50 or over for an average of nine years.
The researchers, from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and other institutions, controlled rigorously for the effects of other lifestyle factors like obesity, physical activity and smoking, to isolate the effects of ultraprocessed food consumption.
Diets high in minimally processed foods were found to be linked to a decreased risk of dementia and cognitive impairment.
Even moderate consumption of ultraprocessed food was shown to increase the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment significantly.
“Just to say, ‘well, I don’t eat all my calories from ultraprocessed foods, I’m safe.’ It really shows there may not be a safe level,” said Cindy W. Leung, associate professor of public health nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan and a co-author of the new study.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made ultraprocessed food one of the main targets of his Make America Healthy Again agenda. A growing body of scientific research links consumption of ultraprocessed food to the full range of chronic diseases that have exploded across the US and the Developed World in recent decades, and increasingly in the Developing World as Western eating patterns become more common.
2 Responses
…It really shows there may not be a safe level,
This is why they still allow this poison to be made.
Feel for Alex. He’s even being subjected to moderating his comment section.. The ultimate blow to free speech.