Researchers found that up to 8,300 deaths could be prevented across Canada if the country’s population halved its consumption of ultra-processed foods.
Between a fifth and over a third of all heart disease-related deaths, including coronary heart disease and stroke, are attributable to consuming ultra-processed foods (UPFs), scientists warned in a new study.
Coronary heart disease and stroke are among the leading causes of death, responsible for nearly one in four deaths in many parts of the world.
High intake of ultra-processed food has been associated with increased risks of chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases (CVD).
A new study attempted to estimate the burden of CVD that can be attributed to ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption among adults in Canada.
They say similar results could be expected in other high-income countries as well.
In the study, scientists looked at the diets of Canadians over 20 years old in 2015, and found UPFs made up 43 per cent of their total daily energy intake.
They estimated that between 23 per cent and 38 per cent of all CVD events in 2019 were attributable to UPF intake.
This corresponds to 58,200 to 96,000 new cases of CVD, and 10,600 to 17,400 CVD-related deaths, researchers noted in the study published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Scientists then estimated the effects of different scenarios of reduced and increased UPF intake to estimate the potential health impacts, and calculated the number of avoidable or excess CVD cases, deaths at varying consumption levels.
Reducing UPF consumption by half may have prevented 5,000 to 8,300 CVD-related deaths and 27,300 to 45,900 new CVD cases across the Canadian general population, they estimated.
“These findings reinforce the need for clinical and public health interventions aimed at reducing UPF intake as a key component of cardiovascular disease prevention,” scientists wrote.
“Similar trials could investigate the extent to which reducing UPF intake in the diet could reverse or prevent CVD precursors/risk factors, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity,” they wrote.
Researchers warn that UPF dominates the food environment, making excessive consumption a widespread and involuntary phenomenon.
“While public education and individual counselling remain important components of health promotion, their impact is limited without broader environmental and policy support,” scientists wrote.
“To drive meaningful change in dietary patterns, comprehensive structural measures are essential. These include regulations on food taxes, front-of-package labelling, marketing restrictions and reformulation targets aimed at improving food quality,” they wrote.
Experts unrelated to the study point out that while reducing UPF consumption may be beneficial, they highlight that the findings are “observational” in nature and do not yet prove a thorough causality between UPFs and CVDs.
“Observational studies can only provide information about an association, but not causality,” explained nutritionist Gunter Kuhnle from the University of Reading.
“UPF are often more affordable than less processed foods, which means that people who consume larger amounts of ultra-processed foods might already be disadvantaged, which can result in poorer health,” he said.
“In my view it would be more accurate to interpret this study as a modelling exercise that reinforces what we already know about poor diet and heart disease, not as evidence that industrial food processing is itself a distinct cardiovascular hazard,” said Alberto Fiore, a professor of food chemistry from Abertay University.