Eating ultra-processed foods (UPFs) can accelerate biological aging and make a person seem older than their years, a study has found.
Researchers at Monash University in Australia examined data on diet and general health from more than 16,000 people in the United States aged between 20 and 79.
Biological age refers to how old a person seems based on various molecular biomarkers, compared to chronological age, which is the number of years a person has lived.
The team at Monash found a “significant association” between increased UPF consumption and accelerated biological aging.
For every 10 per cent increase in UPF consumption, researchers found that the gap between biological and chronological age widened by approximately 2.4 months.
Participants who consumed the most UPFs were biologically 0.86 years older than those who consumed the least.
The results suggest that “food processing may contribute to biological aging acceleration”, the authors wrote.
Dr Barbara Cardoso, a senior lecturer at Monash who led the study, said her team’s predictions show that for every 10 per cent increase in total energy intake from UPF consumption, there is a nearly 2 per cent increased risk of mortality and 0.5 per cent risk of chronic disease over two years.
She said: “Assuming a standard diet of 2,000 calories 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 aging process advancing by more than two months compared to chronological aging.”
The authors said that several factors were behind the association between UPFs and biological aging. This included the nutritional deficiency of UPFs, chemical additives added to the foods and packaging chemicals.
They said that members of the public should reduce the amount of UPFs in their diet to mitigate the adverse effects, while also increasing consumption of whole foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
UPFs often contain high levels of saturated fat, salt and sugar and additives, which experts say leaves less room in people’s diets for more nutritious foods. Examples include ice cream, processed meats, biscuits, crisps and mass-produced bread.
These UPFs also tend to include additives and ingredients that are not used when people cook from scratch, such as preservatives, emulsifiers and artificial colours and flavours.
Previous studies have linked UPFs to an increased risk of obesity, heart disease, cancer and early death.
The findings come amid a fierce debate over the increasing consumption of UPFs.
Last month, two experts from the universities of Aberdeen and Liverpool co-wrote an article which warned that research around UPFs is still in its infancy and more needs to be known before people are told to stop consuming them.
The article, written by Professor Eric Robinson of the University of Liverpool and Professor Alexandra Johnstone of the University of Aberdeen, states there is a potential “social cost for many people with more limited resources” of removing convenient food options.
They also claimed that “avoiding some types of UPFs” could lead some people to choose alternatives “that are higher in energy or macronutrients of concern”.
