📉 Reducing Chronic Disease and Prolonging Life To minimize chronic disease risk and live longer while supporting the planet, experts recommend a plant-based diet.
❌ Misconceptions About Plant-Based Diets Does this mean you can indulge in boxed macaroni and cheese, frozen veggie pizza, fast-food French fries, and doughnuts? Not quite. Despite being meat-free, these ultra-processed options pose significant health risks, according to Duane Mellor, a registered dietitian and senior teaching fellow at Aston Medical School in Birmingham, UK.
🛑 Ultra-Processed Plant Foods Are Not Always Healthy “We can’t always assume plant-based means healthy, as sugar is also plant-based,” Mellor explains. Foods like biscuits, crisps, confectionery, and soft drinks, although free from animal products, are not considered essential for a healthy diet.
⚠️ Health Risks of Plant-Based Junk Foods Consuming such plant-based junk foods significantly increases bad cholesterol and hypertension, leading to heart disease and early death. A new study, the first of its kind, links ultra-processed plant foods to an elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases.
📊 Study Insights “Plant-based products can be protective against health problems or pose a risk, depending on their processing level,” says senior study author Renata Levy from the University of São Paulo’s Epidemiological Research Center in Nutrition and Health (Nupens/USP), Brazil.
⚙️ Understanding Ultra-Processed Foods Ultra-processed foods undergo numerous industrial processes—such as heating, nutrient fracking, molding, and adding chemicals to alter color, smell, taste, and texture. These foods are designed to be highly palatable and convenient, requiring minimal preparation.
🥗 Healthy Food Choices Unprocessed foods include fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, and milk. Minimally processed foods involve ingredients like salt, herbs, oils, canned goods, and frozen vegetables combined with unprocessed foods.
🧪 Risks from Additives and Contaminants “Food additives and industrial contaminants in these foods can cause oxidative stress and inflammation, further increasing risks,” says first author Fernanda Rauber from Nupens/USP. “Our results support shifting towards plant-based food choices that consider processing levels to improve cardiovascular health outcomes.”
📈 Research Findings The study, published in The Lancet Regional Health — Europe, utilized UK Biobank data from over 118,000 participants aged 40 to 69. The findings linked plant-based ultra-processed foods to a 5% increase in cardiovascular disease risk and a 13% increase in early death risk. Each 10% replacement of ultra-processed foods with fresh, frozen, or minimally processed plants reduced cardiovascular disease risk by 7% and heart disease death risk by 13%.
🍔 Plant-Based Meat Alternatives Plant-based meat products, such as sausages, nuggets, and burgers, fall into the ultra-processed category. However, their specific risks are less clear, according to Peter Scarborough, a professor of population health at the University of Oxford, UK.
🍞 Bread and Baked Goods Over half of the studied plant-based ultra-processed foods were packaged breads, pastries, buns, cakes, and cookies. “It’s difficult to conclude that plant-based meat alternatives are particularly bad for health,” Scarborough adds.
📚 Expert Opinions Tom Sanders, professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, notes that well-balanced plant-based diets like the Mediterranean or DASH diets are beneficial for cardiovascular health. These diets already emphasize avoiding unhealthy foods, whether industrially or home-made.
