Ultra-processed foods are now a regular part of people’s diets from packaged snacks and sugary drinks to processed meats, ready-to-eat meals and commercially produced baked goods. A new large-scale analysis has added to concerns about their potential long-term health effects.
Higher consumption of ultra-processed foods was associated with increased risks of several chronic health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, cancer, digestive diseases and metabolic disorders, the analysis found.
Importantly, the researchers found that every additional 100 grams of ultra-processed food consumed per day was associated with a 14% higher risk of cardiovascular events. The analysis also linked each additional 100 grams with higher risks of hypertension, cancer and death from any cause.
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But the results need to be interpreted carefully. The 14% figure is the association among all the studies that were considered in this study. It does not mean that eating a 100-gram serving of ultra-processed food automatically causes a person’s heart disease risk to jump by 14%.
What did the new study find?
The researchers pooled 51 prospective cohort studies with nearly 8.8 million people. They included participants from different populations and followed them for periods ranging from two to 32 years. The researchers investigated how ultra-processed food consumption related to a variety of health outcomes.
The findings appeared in Family Medicine and Community Health. The researchers evaluated evidence from April 2026 to determine the dose-response relationship between ultra-processed food consumption and disease risk.
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People who ate high amounts of ultra-processed foods were more at risk of a variety of health problems compared to those who ate less.
For cardiovascular events, the overall risk was about 24% higher in groups with higher ultra-processed food consumption. When the relationship was compared with increasing quantities, each additional 100 grams per day was associated with a 14% higher risk for cardiovascular events.
The researchers also found that every additional 100 grams per day was associated with:
11% higher risk of high blood pressure,
4% higher risk of cancer,
3% higher risk of death from any cause,
2% higher risk of metabolic syndrome or diabetes.
These figures show the relative associations observed in the pooled research. They should not be seen as individual predictions.
What counts as ultra-processed food?
Ultra-processed foods are typically industrially produced products which have undergone extensive processing and often contain multiple additives or ingredients that are rare in home cooking.
Examples can include packaged snacks, commercially produced cookies and cakes, sugary drinks, processed meat products, and some ready-to-eat or heat-and-serve meals.
The researchers say these products are energy-dense and can contain high amounts of sugar, salt and other ingredients while offering relatively little dietary fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals.
But not all packaged foods or processed foods are unhealthy. Food processing is a spectrum, and some processed foods still provide a nutritious diet.
The concern about ultra-processed foods resides more in the overall characteristics of these products and their frequent consumption than one packaged item.
Why would ultra-processed food have an effect on heart health?
Researchers are still trying to understand precisely why ultra-processed food intake is associated with worse health outcomes.
One possible reason is their nutritional composition. A lot of ultra-processed products may have high calories, added sugars, sodium and certain fats, and a lot of fibre and other nutrients are relatively low.
A diet containing large amounts of these foods will therefore promote weight gain, high blood pressure, abnormal blood sugar, and other metabolic changes that are associated with cardiovascular disease.
Researchers have also suggested that food additives, compounds formed during processing and substances that may migrate from packaging could play a role. Changes in the gut microbiome and inflammatory processes have been suggested as possible mechanisms, but their role is unknown.
That is, the health effects may not be explained by a single ingredient.
Does eating 100g of ultra-processed food mean you will have a heart problem?
No.
One of the most interesting aspects of the study is that we’re going to do this.
The researchers did not conclude that an individual who eats exactly 100 grams of ultra-processed food in a day will suddenly develop a 14% higher personal risk of a heart attack or other cardiovascular event.
Instead, there was a statistical relationship between consumption and cardiovascular outcomes among the populations.
The studies included in the analysis were largely observational. Such studies can reveal associations but cannot prove that ultra-processed foods directly contributed to health issues.
Other factors can also affect cardiovascular risk, including smoking, physical activity, body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, sleep, overall dietary patterns, and socioeconomic factors.
So the researchers examined a large body of evidence to find consistent patterns, but the findings still need to be interpreted in that context.
How much ultra-processed food is safe?
The new analysis does not establish a single universal amount that can be considered completely safe for everyone.
The researchers were interested in knowing whether there was a threshold below which ultra-processed food consumption does not appear to be associated with adverse health outcomes. Instead, data showed that higher intake was associated with greater risk across several outcomes.
But nutrition experts don’t just put grams in grams and do not just focus on grams; they focus on grams but the overall quality of the diet.
Replacing some ultra-processed foods with minimally processed options can increase the intake of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and other nutrient-rich foods.
For example, a packaged sweet bite could serve as an alternative to fruit and nuts, and sugary drinks could be replaced with water or unsweetened drinks. It’s not necessarily to eliminate all packaged food, but to stop ultra-processed foods from dominating your diet.
What does this mean for heart health?
The study adds to an expanding body of studies linking higher ultra-processed food consumption to a wide variety of chronic diseases.
More ultra-processed food consumption was also associated with cardiovascular disease in previous studies. A meta-analysis found a positive dose-response relationship between ultra-processed food intake and cardiovascular events, and a large prospective cohort study also showed higher risk of cardiovascular disease among people who consume more ultra-processed food.
The new analysis is more impressive in its scale, for it contains evidence from more than 50 prospective cohort studies and nearly 9 million participants.
But the findings need not be interpreted as saying that one particular food or one 100-gram serving will make someone sick.
The message is about diet patterns. Frequently consuming a high amount of ultra-processed food can lead to a higher risk of a variety of health problems, and diets that lean more heavily on minimally processed foods could provide more fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals. For people concerned with heart health, reducing the frequency and quantity of ultra-processed foods while choosing more whole or minimally processed foods can be part of an overall healthy eating pattern. Physical activity, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, smoking and body weight are other components of cardiovascular health.
However, the study does not indicate that 100 grams of ultra-processed food is a critical danger threshold. And so it adds to the wider picture that increasing consumption of these foods is associated with more health risks.
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