Study Finds New Link Between Processed Foods and Early Death

A new study offers new evidence a diet full of junk food and other highly processed foods could be linked to an early death.

The researchers in the NutriNet-Santé Study,with lead researcher Laure Schnabel, MD, MSc, of the University of Paris, published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They concluded eating 10 percent more ultra-processed foods resulted in a 14 percent higher risk of death.

"An increase in ultra-processed foods consumption appears to be associated with an overall higher mortality risk among this adult population," the report reads. "Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings and to disentangle the various mechanisms by which ultra-processed foods may affect health."

The study focused on 44,551 adults in France aged 45 or older starting in 2009 and ending in 2017. The median time each participant spent in the study was 7.1 years.

"The association between proportion of ultra-processed foods and overall mortality was the main outcome," the report reads. "Mean dietary intakes from all of the 24-hour dietary records available during the first two years of follow-up were calculated and considered as the baseline usual food-and-drink intakes."

The results of a study released last year, meanwhile, found half of U.S. adults were trying to lose weight.

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