Researchers from Italy and Germany have found that the high consumption of ultraprocessed foods is associated with the acceleration of biological ageing, regardless of the nutritional quality of the diet.

The study conducted by the Research Unit of Epidemiology and Prevention at the I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed in Pozzilli, Italy in collaboration with the LUM University of Casamassima in Germany, is published in ‘The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition’.

Italian researchers analysed data on over 22,000 participants from the Moli-sani Study, one of the largest population cohorts in Europe, and used over thirty different blood biomarkers to measure biological age. Unlike chronologicaage, which depends exclusively on the date of birth, biological age reflects the biological conditions of our body, including organs, tissues and systems, and can differ from its chronological age.

Ultra-processed foods include not only packaged snacks or sugary drinks, but also apparently ‘harmless’ products such as mass-produced or packaged bread, fruit yogurt, some breakfast cereals or meat alternatives, to give a few examples.

Simona Esposito, researcher at the Research Unit of Epidemiology and Prevention and first author of the study said: “Our data shows that a high consumption of ultra-processed foods not only has a negative impact on health in general, but could also accelerate ageing itself, suggesting a connection that goes beyond the poor nutritional quality of these foods.”