The 7 firm favourite ultra-processed foods NOT linked to cancer or diabetes, scientists claim

SOME ultra-processed food might actually be good for you, a new study has suggested,

The chemical-riddled snacks have been demonised by medics for years after countless studies linked the foods to cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Some ultra-processed foods are less bad for you than previously thought

But a new study involving top experts has found eating lots of meat products – like sausages – and sugary drinks makes it more likely that someone will get those diseases.

While several ultra-processed foods (UPFs) like bread and cereal, can actually reduce someone’s risk because they contain fibre, the same researchers said, in a paper published in the Lancet.

Eating plenty of fibre can cut our risk of several deadly conditions including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer, separate studies have found.

The NHS advise we eat around 30g of fibre a day.

Other foods previously vilified like sweets and desserts, ready meals, savoury snacks and plant-based foods are also “not associated with risk of multi-morbidity”, said the authors.

Multi-morbidity means someone is living with two or more chronic illnesses.

Sauces, spreads and condiments are also bad for human health, but don’t pose as great a risk as meat products and soft drinks.

UPFs are foods that usually contain ingredients that people would not add when they were cooking homemade food.

These additions may include chemicals, colourings, sweeteners and preservatives that extend shelf life.

The NHS says not all processed food is bad, adding that some foods need processing to make them safe, such as milk, which needs to be pasteurised to remove bacteria.

The latest study, which included experts from the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, investigated the link between UPFs and the risk of people suffering at least two chronic diseases.

This included cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

They assessed the dietary history and illnesses experienced by, 266,666 people in seven European countries, including the UK.

The results showed the average UPF intake for men and women was 413g/day and 326g/day respectively.

This meant around 34 per cent of a man’s daily calories come from UPFs and 32 per cent of a woman’s.

After a follow-up of 11 years, 4,461 people had developed both cancer and cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

Analysis showed that those people who consumed higher amounts of UPFs had a nine per cent increased risk of suffering two illnesses.

But when researchers looked at subgroups of UPFs, they said the link was most obvious for animal-based UPFs and artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages.

“Other subgroups such as ultra-processed bread and cereals or plant-based alternatives were not associated with risk,” they concluded.

They said: “Artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages, animal-based products and sauces, spreads and condiments, but not other subgroups, were associated with increased risk, suggesting that more nuanced subgroup analyses of ultra-processed foods are warranted.”

Heinz Freisling, co-author, and study lead at IARC, also said the study “emphasises it is not necessary to completely avoid ultra-processed foods”.

He added: “Rather, their consumption should be limited, and preference be given to fresh or minimally processed foods.”

Dr Ian Johnson, nutrition researcher at the Quadram Institute, said the researchers recognised “the definition of UPF covers a very broad and diverse range of foods.”

He added: “Importantly, ultra-processed bread and cereal products showed an association with a reduction in risk.

“These observations do suggest a role for some UPF in the onset of multiple chronic diseases, but they also show that the common assumption that all UPF foods are linked to adverse health effects is probably wrong.

“Furthermore, ultra-processed cereal products may be beneficial to health, perhaps because some provide convenient and palatable sources of dietary fibre.”