A large study from Australia found that eating even a bit more ultra-processed food might affect how well people can focus and could be linked to a higher risk of dementia, no matter how healthy the rest of their diet is.
The research, led by scientist Barbara Cardoso, looked at 2,192 people, consisting of mostly White women. They answered questions about what they eat and took tests to check their attention and memory. The researchers also collected details like age, lifestyle, and health to estimate each person's risk of developing dementia in the next 20 years.
The study, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, revealed that, on average, ultra-processed foods made up about 41% of people's daily calories. The study further found that for every 10 percent increase in ultra-processed food in the diet, people's ability to focus slightly dropped. At the same time, their estimated dementia risk score increased a little. Of the total participants, younger people and men ate more of these foods.
"To put our findings in perspective, a 10 percent increase in ultra-processed foods is roughly equivalent to adding a standard packet of chips to your daily diet," commented Cardoso, a nutritional biochemist from Monash University in Australia.
"For every 10 per cent increase in ultra-processed food a person consumed, we saw a distinct and measurable drop in a person's ability to focus."
"In clinical terms, this translated to consistently lower scores on standardized cognitive tests measuring visual attention and processing speed."
Overall, the results suggest that eating more ultra-processed food is linked to worse attention and a higher risk of dementia.
"Food ultra-processing often destroys the natural structure of food and introduces potentially harmful substances like artificial additives or processing chemicals," Cardoso explained.
"These additives suggest the link between diet and cognitive function extends beyond just missing out on foods known as healthy, pointing to mechanisms linked to the degree of food processing itself."
However, the researchers underscored that the study does not prove that these foods directly cause these problems; it only shows a connection.
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