Can eating too much ultra-processed food age your body cells faster? Study says it may be possible
Scientific research has previously linked ultra-processed foods with serious diseases such as hypertension, obesity, type 2 diabetes, depression and even cancers. A research team now says that consuming a lot of ultra-processed food could be causing the cells in the body to age faster.
The analysis sheds light on the link between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and the shortening of telomeres, which are sections of chromosomes that can be used as a marker of biological age. According to experts, telomeres are structures formed from a strand of DNA together with specialized proteins and they are located at the ends of the chromosomes. Each human cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes that contain our genetic code. While the telomeres do not contain genetic information themselves, they are vital for preserving the stability and integrity of chromosomes and by extension, the DNA that every cell in our body relies on to function. As we get older, our telomeres get shorter since each time a cell divides, part of the telomere is lost. Telomere length (TL) is considered to be a marker of biological age.
In the current study, researchers found that telomeres were twice as likely to be short in people who had more than three servings per day of ultra-processed foods. “Ultra-processed food consumption is associated with chromosomal changes linked to biological aging. Short telomeres are a marker of biological aging at the cellular level, and the study suggests that diet may be causing the cells to age faster,” write authors.
The team includes experts from University of Navarra, Spain; Navarra Institute for Health Research (IdiSNA), Spain; Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III, Spain; and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, US. The findings are being presented at this year’s European and International Conference on Obesity (ECOICO 2020) held online from September 1 to 4. The research has also been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
"Consumption of more than 3 servings per day of ultra-processed food almost doubles the risk of having short telomeres, a marker of biological aging at the cellular level. My recommendation is to decrease the consumption of ultra-processed food and promote the consumption of dietary patterns rich in fruit, vegetables and whole foods like the Mediterranean dietary pattern," study author Professor Maira Bes-Rastrollo from the University of Navarra told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW).
Ultra-processed foods are made entirely or mostly from substances extracted from foods such as fats, starches, hydrogenated fats, added sugar, modified starch and other compounds and include cosmetic additives such as artificial flavors, colors or emulsifiers. Examples include soft drinks, packaged salty snacks, cookies, cakes, processed meats, chicken nuggets, powdered and packaged instant soups and many items often marketed as convenience foods.
Globally, fresh food consumption is decreasing while ultra-processed food intake is rising. According to the authors, the processes and ingredients used in the manufacturing of ultra-processed foods make them highly convenient (ready-to-consume, almost imperishable), highly attractive for consumers and highly profitable (low-cost ingredients, long shelf-life) for their manufacturers. These properties also result in them being nutritionally poor or unbalanced and liable to be over-consumed, often at the expense of less processed and more nutritious alternatives, they emphasize.
"Research has associated ultra-processed foods with obesity, depression, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and various cancers. These conditions are often age-related and are linked to oxidative stress, inflammation, and cellular aging which can also influence telomere length," writes the team. They further say, "Despite this, there have been few studies into the effects of ultra-processed food consumption on TL, but those that have been conducted found associations between the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), alcohol, processed meats and other foods rich in saturated fats and sugar with having shorter telomeres. These studies are far from conclusive, however, as other research has not shown a link between ultra-processed food and TL."
Accordingly, the authors wanted to evaluate the association between ultra-processed food consumption and the risk of telomere length within an elderly study population. They obtained data from participants in the SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) Project: an open prospective cohort of graduates from the University of Navarra and other Spanish universities. Recruitment began in 1999 and is permanently open to any graduate, age 20 years or more, with data collection being done via self-reported questionnaires mailed out every two years. This report is based on the analysis of a genetic study performed in May 2008, which all project participants over the age of 55 were invited to take part in. Overall, 886 individuals provided saliva samples for DNA analysis as well as accurate records of their daily food intake.
In total, 645 men and 241 women with an average age of 67.7 years were included in the current analysis and were grouped into four groups of equal size (quartiles) from ‘low to high’ based on their consumption of ultra-processed food. This includes less than 2 servings/day, 2 to 2.5 servings/day, more than 2.5 to 3 servings/day and more than 3 servings/day.
The results reveal that those in the ‘high’ quartile were more likely to have a family history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and abnormal blood fats and to snack more in between meals. They also consumed more fats, saturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, sodium, sugar-sweetened beverages, cholesterol, fast food and processed meats while consuming fewer carbohydrates, protein, fiber, olive oil, fruits, vegetables and other micronutrients.
The team found that as the consumption of ultra-processed foods increased, the likelihood of having shortened telomeres rose dramatically "with each quartile above the lowest having a risk increase of 29%, 40% and 82% for the medium-low, medium-high and high consumption groups respectively." They also found that ultra-processed food intake was associated with the risk of depression, especially in patients with low levels of physical activity, hypertension, overweight/obesity and all-cause death. "In this cross-sectional study of elderly Spanish subjects, we showed a robust strong association between ultra-processed food consumption and telomere length. Further research in larger longitudinal studies with baseline and repeated measures of telomere length is needed to confirm these observations," the authors conclude.