For more than a century, heart disease has had the dubious distinction of being the number one killer in the United States. Although some contributing factors are well-established, findings from two recent studies suggest another, lesser-known cause in the development of the disease: ultra-processed foods—now thought to make up 60 percent of the average American’s diet.
The First Study: Ultra-Processed Foods and the Risk of Cardiovascular Events
A meta-analysis published last month in The Lancet evaluated the dose-response relationship between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and the risk of cardiovascular events, which included “the morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular causes, and myocardial infarction, stroke, transient ischemic attack, [and] coronary intervention.”The comprehensive analysis included twenty studies with more than 1 million participants (1,101,073) and a median follow-up of 12.2 years.
