A high intake of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) can increase your biological age, academics have said.
A new study led by Monash University has found that UPFs came make you old beyond your years.
Chronological age is the number of years you’ve been alive, while biological age refers to how old your cells and tissues are based on physiological evidence.
Diet is a key factor that can affect your biological age, as well as genetics, general lifestyle and environmental factors.
Individuals with healthy and active lifestyles are likely to have a biological age younger than their chronological age.
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Meanwhile, those with unhealthy lifestyles are likely to have a biological age older than their chronological age.
UPFs are foods that have undergone several processing steps and include additives. Examples of UPFs include crisps, ice cream, chicken nuggets, breakfast cereals, instant noodles, fizzy drinks, biscuits, sausages, chocolate, ready meals, baked beans, fish fingers and cakes.
During the study, the team of researchers analysed the health outcomes of 16,055 participants from the US, whose lifestyles were comparable to those in other Western countries such as Australia.
They discovered that the participants with a higher intake of UPFs had a higher biological age than those with a lower intake.
According to the researcher, for every 10% increase in UPF consumption the gap between biological and chronological age widened by approximately 2.4 months.
Lead author Dr Barbara Cardoso said: “The significance of our findings is tremendous, as our predictions show that for every 10% increase in total energy intake from UPFs consumption there is a nearly 2% increased risk of mortality and 0.5% risk of chronic disease over two years.
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“Assuming a standard diet of 2,000 calories per day, adding an extra 200 calories of UPFs, which roughly equals an 80-gram serving of chicken bites or a small chocolate bar, could lead to the biological ageing process advancing by more than two months compared to chronological ageing.”
The findings stated: “Adults with higher UPF tended to be biologically older. This association is partly independent of diet quality, suggesting that food processing may contribute to biological aging acceleration. Our findings point to a compelling reason to target UPF consumption to promote healthier aging.”
Dr Cardoso concluded: “Our findings indicate that reducing ultra-processed foods in the diet may help slow the biological aging trajectory, bringing another reason to target ultra-processed foods when considering strategies to promote healthy aging.”
The study is available in the journal Age and Ageing.
