Ultra-Processed Foods May Make Us Age Faster

Highly-processed foods now make up 60 percent of the average American diet. beats1/Shutterstock

A study published in the journal Age and Ageing has found consuming ultra-processed foods like carbonated drinks, chips, and ice cream increases a person’s biological age.

Researchers found that for every 10 percent increase in ultra-processed foods (UPF) consumption, a person is 0.21 years biologically older.

In other words, the gap between biological and chronological age increases by 0.21 years (2.4 months).

Chronological age is the age of a person measured as time since their birth, whereas biological age is the measure of how old a person seems based on physiological and functional markers like genetics, lifestyle, and environmental influences.

Additionally, the participants who had a 68-100 percent UPF diet were 0.86 years biologically older when compared to the participants who had less than a 39 percent UPF diet.

The study was a cross-sectional study—a type of study that examines data from a population across different time points.

The researchers used data from the United States’ National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which included 16,055 people from the U.S., aged 20-79. Diet quality was assessed using methods by the American Heart Association (AHA) 2020 and the Healthy Eating Index 2015 (HEI-15).

Definition of Ultra-processed Foods

Foods like biscuits, ready-to-eat meals, instant noodles, and burgers are UPFs because they made with industrial formulations that use ingredients such as oils, fats, and starch.

They normally include additives for cosmetic purposes and substances that are usually not seen in whole foods.

Significance of Research Findings

The study’s lead author, Dr. Barbara Cardoso, from Monash University’s Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food and Monash Victorian Heart Institute, said the findings underlined the importance of eating as many unprocessed and minimally processed foods as possible.

Dr. Cardoso said the adverse health effects of UPFs were obvious, but their relationship to biological ageing markers was under-investigated.

She added these outcomes hold crucial implications for public health.

“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 percent increased risk of mortality and 0.5 per cent risk of incident chronic disease over two years,” she said in a press release.

“Assuming a standard diet of 2,000 calories (8500 kilojoules) per day, adding an extra 200 calories of ultra-processed food, which roughly equals an 80-gram serving of chicken bites or a small chocolate bar, could lead to the biological ageing process advancing by more than two months compared to chronological ageing.”

What is Causing Biological Ageing?

When diet quality and total energy intake were adjusted, the association between UPFs and biological ageing remained, indicating that other factors may be contributing to this link, the study found.

One factor could be a lower intake of flavonoids or phytoestrogens, plant-based compounds that are found in fresh fruits and vegetables.

An alternate explanation for the association is the high exposure to packaging chemicals and compounds in food processing. This includes bisphenol A (BPA) and pthalates, chemical compounds used in plastic manufacturing.

“Adults with higher UPF tended to be biologically older,” the researchers found.

“This association is partly independent of diet quality, suggesting that food processing may contribute to biological ageing acceleration. Our findings point to a compelling reason to target UPF consumption to promote healthier ageing.”

The authors also acknowledged the limitations of the study, saying the NHANES data may lack food processing data rather than nutrient concentrations, and that food intake estimates may not reflect usual diet.

Though the study participants were from the U.S., Dr. Cardoso said the findings are relevant to Australians since UPFs represent almost 40 percent of total energy intake in Australian adults.

She said given the global population continued to age, demonstrating the adverse effects of UPFs reinforced the need for dietary-focused public health strategies to prolong a healthy life span.

“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,” she said.