Research Finds Link Between Ultra-Processed Plant-Based Foods and Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Ultra-processed foods of plant origin are associated with heart disease in a study conducted by USP in partnership with Imperial College London and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The research included more than 118,000 participants, aged 40 to 69. One of the authors of the study, researcher Maria Laura Louzada, from the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health (Nupens) at the USP School of Public Health, comments on the results obtained and the relationship between this class of foods and cardiovascular disease.

According to the researcher, the study ‘s major innovation was that it monitored the plant-based diet of a very large sample of people over a long period of time for the first time. She says that the first step was to identify foods that originated from plants and separate them into non-ultra-processed foods, such as cereals, seeds, fruits and vegetables, and ultra-processed foods, such as soft drinks, snacks, artificial juices and some types of sweets and savory foods.

The expert says that people often try to replace animal products with those that come from plants to avoid health problems. However, the industrial process of this type of food can often also generate risks, as in the case of processed sausages and artificial nuggets that try to replace traditional meats. “People are increasingly concerned about their diet and consume these plant-based products thinking they are completely healthy. But there are risks during the processing of plant-based food,” she says.

Illnesses

According to Maria Laura, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in the population studied varied according to the foods consumed. She says that a 10% increase in the contribution of non-ultra-processed plant-based foods meant a 7% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular diseases, while the contribution of ultra-processed foods increased the risk of these diseases by around 5%.

Furthermore, she explains that the consumption of non-ultra-processed foods represented a 13% reduction in the mortality rate due to these problems, while the consumption of ultra-processed foods increased the risk of death by 12%. “The main finding we have, therefore, is that we have plants, but when we divide them into groups, we see absolutely opposite behaviors for health; so we need to warn about the consumption of meat and ultra-processed foods, but of all these types of food, both those of animal origin and those of plant origin”, she explains.

Public policy

According to Maria Laura Louzada, the population is increasingly concerned about the quality of the food they eat and its impact on the environment, but there is no point in exchanging environmental problems for health problems. She emphasizes that it is of fundamental importance to seek to know the form of processing used in each food and some public policies are already taking this factor into account, such as the Basic Food Basket Ordinance, which excluded ultra-processed foods from the list of foods present in the basket.

“We are currently discussing tax reform, where there is a chance to discuss the exemption of healthy foods from the basic food basket. There is already evidence from experiences in other countries that selective taxation of ultra-processed foods has not impacted the population’s pockets and has even reduced the consumption of ultra-processed foods in relation to the consumption of healthy foods,” he concludes.