Researchers on three continents collaborated to conduct an umbrella review of all available data on the health impacts of ultraprocessed foods. In pooled data from 45 different studies involving nearly 10,000,000 participants, higher intake of ultraprocessed food was consistently associated with higher risk of adverse health outcomes. The researchers found strong evidence that higher intake of ultraprocessed foods was associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes, anxiety, depression, poor sleep, wheezing, obesity, and higher risk of death, including death from cardiovascular disease. These disorders are interrelated, so it is difficult to sort them out, but risk for all of the disorders increased with increase in intake of ultraprocessed foods.
