Studies Link Junk Food Consumption To Increased Risk For Heart Disease, Early Death

Ultra-processed foods – think chips, cookies or your average fast-food meal – have been again and again tied to adverse health outcomes.

Two new studies from France and Spain, both published Wednesday in the British Medical Journal, show that consuming convenient junk food has been linked to increased heart disease and early death.

"It's a really worrisome trend," Dr. Erin Michos, the associate director of preventive cardiology at Johns Hopkins University, told USA TODAY. "As food has become more industrialized and globalized, diets have transitioned from where everyone has to sit down as a family and eat freshly-made food into food that's highly palatable, easy to eat and easy to prepare." Michos was not involved in the study.

The findings follow a study published last year that links ultra-processed food to cancer.

Ultra-processed food is defined as food "with a low nutritional quality and high energy density." How do you know if something is ultra-processed? "If it contains more than five ingredients, it's probably ultra-processed," said Michos.

The Spanish project from Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra, a cohort of university volunteers from Universidad de Navarra, tracked dietary data from nearly 20,000 participants over the course of 15 years using a 136-item food questionnaire.

Researchers found that those who consumed more than four servings a day of ultra-processed foods had a 62% increased risk of early mortality. 

Each additional serving of ultra-processed food, after four servings, increased mortality rates by 18%.

Read more at USA Today