Consuming more than four daily servings of ultra-processed foods is associated with a 62% increased risk for all causes of mortality. Likewise, each additional serving of these foods, which include sausages, sweetened dairy desserts, cookies or industrial pastries, increases the risk by 18%. This is the main conclusion of a study carried out by scientists from the University of Navarra, which has just been published in the British Medical Journal.

This is a work of the project 'Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra' (SUN), carried out with nearly 20,000 volunteers and directed by Miguel A. Martínez-González, researcher principal of the CIBER in its thematic area Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition(CIBEROBN).

Dr. Maira Bes-Rastrollo, senior researcher of this work, states that "previousprograms of study of project SUN, led by CIBEROBN and the University of Navarra, with funding from high school of Health Carlos III, had already found in ultra-processed foods the origin of numerous cardiometabolic health problems such as an increased risk of overweight, hypertension and even depression". This is demonstrated by a work of the same team recently published in the European Journal of Nutrition.

Now, researchers are going a step further and linking it directly to the causes of mortality.

335 deaths in ten years of study

The project SUN is a large prospective cohort of university graduates from all over Spain. In this particular case, a total of 19,899 volunteers (12,113 women and 7,786 men) were studied for 15 years (1999-2014), recording their food and beverage consumption through a frequency questionnaire and following the NOVA classification (foods are organized into four groups according to the Degree in which they have been processed and transformed).

Over this time, 335 deaths occurred during a 10-year follow-up average and the University of Navarra researchers found that the risk of mortality increases markedly with increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods.

As Dr. Bes explains, "this subject of foods are industrial formulations made from refined (sugar, starches, vegetable oils, salt) or synthesized (trans fats, hydrolyzed protein, additives) ingredients, and do not contain any recognizable whole foods". Some examples are: sugary soft drinks, sausages, sweetened dairy desserts, cookies, industrial pastries or breakfast cereals. "In addition, they are characterized by a leave nutritional quality, are ready to eat at any time, without preparation, and are extremely tasty, so they easily displace the consumption of beneficial foods and move away from truly healthy eating patterns," he adds.