People who eat a lot of ultra-processed foods may be at higher risk of early death, a study of eight countries, including the UK and the US, suggests.
Processed meats, cookies, sodas, ice cream, and some breakfast cereals are examples of ultra-processed foods, which are becoming increasingly common in diets around the world.
Ultra-processed foods typically contain more than five ingredients, which are not typically found in a home kitchen, such as additives, sweeteners, and chemicals to improve the texture or appearance of the food.
Some experts say it's not known why ultra-processed foods are linked to poor health - there's little evidence that it's because of the processing itself and it could be because these foods contain high levels of fat, salt and sugar.
"Artificial ingredients"
The researchers behind the study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, looked at previous research to assess the impact of ultra-processed foods on mortality.
The study cannot definitively prove that ultra-processed foods caused any premature deaths.
This is because the amount of ultra-processed foods in someone's diet is also related to that person's overall diet, exercise level, lifestyle, and wealth, all of which can also affect health.
The studies looked at dietary surveys and death data in eight countries - Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, the UK and the US.
The report estimates that in the UK and US, where ultra-processed foods account for more than half of calorie intake, 14 percent of early deaths could be linked to the harm they cause.
In countries such as Colombia and Brazil, where ultra-processed food intake is much lower (less than 20 percent of calorie intake), the study estimated that these foods are linked to about four percent of premature deaths.
Lead author of the study, Dr Eduardo Nilson from Brazil, said that ultra-processed foods affect health "due to changes in food during industrial processing and the use of artificial ingredients, including colors, artificial flavors and sweeteners, emulsifiers and many other additives and processing aids."
According to their calculations, there were 2018 premature deaths in the US in 124.000 due to the consumption of ultra-processed foods. In the UK, almost 18.000.
The study says governments should update dietary advice to urge people to reduce their intake of these foods.
However, the British government's expert panel on nutrition recently said there was no strong evidence of a link between the way food is processed and poor health.
What is ultra-processed food?
There is no single definition that everyone agrees on, but a new classification is often used, according to the BBC.
Examples include: cakes, pastries and biscuits, crisps, supermarket bread, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, instant soups, noodles, desserts, chicken croquettes, fish sticks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, margarines and spreads, baby formula.
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