Overview
- The ESC clinical consensus, released Monday, urges clinicians to ask patients about ultra-processed foods and give brief, practical advice to cut back.
- Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations with additives and little whole food, such as sugary drinks, packaged snacks, ready meals and reconstituted meats, and they now make up about 61% of calories in the Netherlands and 54% in the UK.
- Across studies reviewed by the ESC, the highest consumers faced up to a 19% higher risk of heart disease, a 13% higher risk of atrial fibrillation and a 65% higher risk of cardiovascular death compared with the lowest consumers.
- A Monash University study reported that each 10% daily increase in these foods, roughly 150 grams or a small bag of chips, was linked to lower attention scores and a higher estimated dementia risk even after accounting for overall diet quality.
- The report notes most findings are observational and calls for long-term trials, while outlining plausible harms from additives, processing by-products, packaging contaminants and altered food structure that can drive overeating and inflammation.