Fans of cereal, ice cream, processed meats and other processed foods may want to skip a few servings, according to a study published earlier this month in the JAMA journal.
Authors of the study found that “higher consumption of ultraprocessed foods was associated with a higher rate of global and executive function decline,” after an eight-year follow up.
Researchers defined “ultraprocessed foods” as “formulations of processed food substances (oils, fats, sugars, starch, and protein isolates) that contain little or no whole foods and typically include flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers, and other cosmetic additives.” Examples include: sweet and savory snacks, confectionery, breakfast cereals, ice cream, sugar-sweetened beverages, processed meats, and ready-to-eat frozen meals.
For the past four decades, these foods have become more commonplace through increased commercialization, the study explained. It said that 58% of calories consumed by U.S. citizens comes from this category, as well as 57% of the calories consumed by British citizens and 48% of the calories consumed by Canadian citizens.
With more than half of Americans’ caloric intake coming from processed foods, the nation is also bracing for an increase in dementia cases.
“As the large baby boomer population ages, the total number of people with dementia will rise,” according to the Population Reference Bureau. “Estimates vary, but experts report more than 7 million people ages 65 or older had dementia in 2020. If current demographic and health trends continue, more than 9 million Americans could have dementia by 2030 and nearly 12 million by 2040.”
By 2050, the number of dementia cases could reach 153 million worldwide, said the recent study. Already, dementia is the most important cause of disability in high-income countries, it noted. Per Alzheimer’s Disease International, 10 million new cases of dementia are diagnosed each year worldwide, implying one new case every 3.2 seconds.
“Lifestyle modifications, such as physical activity, healthy dietary habits, and smoking cessation, have been related to dementia prevention,” said authors of the recent study. To learn more about the relationship between processed foods – which are already negatively linked to cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and obesity – and cognitive decline, the researchers conducted a study of 10,775 individuals.
“This was a multicenter, prospective cohort study with three waves, approximately four years apart, from 2008 to 2017,” said the study.
“Data were analyzed from December 2021 to May 2022. Participants were public servants aged 35 to 74 years old recruited in 6 Brazilian cities.”
Changes in cognitive performance over time were evaluated by immediate and delayed word recall, word recognition, phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tests, and other exercises.
“A higher percentage of daily energy consumption of ultraprocessed foods was associated with cognitive decline among adults from an ethnically diverse sample,” they found. “These findings support current public health recommendations on limiting ultraprocessed food consumption because of their potential harm to cognitive function.”
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