Eating Processed, Junk Food Regularly May Lead To Early Ageing – Experts Reveal

Let’s admit it- we love pizzas, soft drinks, fries and all the yummy and decedent foods. But we avoid including them in our diet on a regular basis. Why, you ask? These processed foods have always been associated to several health-related problems such as obesity, heart diseases, diabetes etc. Hence, experts around the world advise cutting down on these fatty items for a fit lifestyle. A new study has further found a link between these junk foods and early ageing in humans. The findings were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The research, conducted by a team of experts at University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, stated that excess consumption of sugar and fat-laden ultra-processed foods (more than 2 to 3 servings a day), doubles the chance of shortening of telomeres. For the unversed, telomeres are a section of chromosome used as a marker for detecting one’s biological age.

The study was conducted on 886 individuals, aged between 57 and 91 years. The group of participants included 645 men and 241 women. They were segregated in four equal groups and were provided four different servings of ultra-processed food on a daily basis: less than 2 servings/day, 2 to 2.5 servings/day, more than 2.5 to 3 servings/day, and more than 3 servings/day.

It was found that increase of junk consumption was linked to higher risk of having shortened telomeres. “Those participants with the highest UPF consumption had almost twice the odds of having short telomeres compared with those with the lowest consumption,” read the study.

This research was presented at European and International Conference on Obesity 2020, on the first week of September.