A recent study looks at the link between these foods and an increased risk of dementia.
The ultra-processed foods are, although we often deny it, very present in our kitchens, our cupboards.
Whether it’s frozen pizzas, crisps, cookies… The raw materials have undergone significant transformations by industrial processes and many additives are used. And this family of foods is the source of more than half of energy intake in many Western countries.
A favored cognitive decline
Already responsible according to previous studies promote obesity and maladies cardiovascular disease, a new study whose results have appeared in Jama Neurology make these foods cognitive decline boosters. In other words they would promote dementia, or at least make us less efficient.
Researchers at the Medical University of Sao Paulo in Brazil have thus, on the one hand, identified a link between cognitive decline and feed ultra-transformed. But on the other side, causality is not formally established.
The study in detail
Four groups were formed among the participants (aged 50 on average at the start of the study which lasted 10 years) according to the proportion of these processed products in their diet.
Results ? The researchers suggest that people who eat the most ultra-processed foods have a 28% faster rate of cognitive decline and a 25% faster rate of decline in executive functions, compared to those who consume very little of the offending foods.
A result to be handled with care
However, a decline was observed among all four groups at the end of the 10-year follow-up. An expected observation since the decline increases with age.
Futura-Sciences reports the explanations From Duane Mellor, Professor of Dietetics at Aston Medical School in Birmingham, UK:
The problem may not be eating more ultra-processed foods, it might be more the fact that they ate less minimally processed foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and legumes (…) we need to try to eat less rich foods in added sugars, salt and fat while eating more vegetables, fruits, nut and legumes known for their benefits on cognition and general health.
