Ultra-processed/Ultra-formulated foods: association with chronic disease risk

Abstract During the past decades, diets have shifted towards an important increase in the degree of food processing and formulation. “Ultra-processed foods” (UPF) now represent more than 50% of energy intakes in several Western countries. In the very last years, an impressive accumulation of evidence from large-scale epidemiological studies linked regular UPF consumption to diverse adverse health outcomes. In this framework, our team of conducted pioneer studies within the prospective e-cohort NutriNet-Santé (n = 170 000) launched in 2009 in France. Dietary intakes were collected using repeated and validated 24-hour dietary records, covering >3,500 food items, which have been categorized using the NOVA classification according to their degree of processing. These analyses highlighted robust significant associations between the consumption of UPF and increased risks of overall and breast cancers, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and coronary heart diseases, mortality, type 2-diabetes, overweight, obesity and weight gain, depressive symptoms, and gastro-intestinal disorders. Research perspectives now consist in elucidating the potential mechanisms that underlie these associations. Our team is launching an Europe-funded project built as a combination of epidemiological studies and in-vitro/in-vivo experiments, in order to shed light on individual exposure to food additive 'cocktails' in relation to human health. Meanwhile and even if further studies are needed to better understand the relative contributions of these factors, public health authorities in several countries have recently started to promote unprocessed or minimally processed foods and to recommend limiting the consumption of ultra-processed foods.