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Ultra-processed foods and health: are we correctly interpreting the available evidence?

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 79, pages 177–180 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Several studies have linked adverse health effects to the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) according to the NOVA classification. However, whether the consumption of UPF is the actual causal factor for such health outcomes is still unknown. Indeed, different groups of UPF examined in the same epidemiologic study often show markedly different associations with the occurrence of the health endpoints. In this Comment, we discuss some such studies and point out that the available evidence on how different UPFs have been associated with health, as well as the results of studies examining specific food additives, call into question the possibility that ultra-processing per se is the real culprit. It is possible that other unaccounted for confounding factors play an important role. Future, urgently needed studies will clarify this issue.

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Fig. 1: Association between mortality risk and ultra-processed food intake.
Fig. 2: Dose-response restricted cubic splines meta-regression analysis of the all-causes mortality Hazard ratio in relation to the percentage of ultra-processed food with respect to the total calories.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Francesco Visioli

  2. Department of Food and Drugs, Human Nutrition Unit, University of Parma, Parma, Italy

    Daniele Del Rio

  3. Food Quality and Design Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Vincenzo Fogliano

  4. Nutrition Foundation of Italy, Milan, Italy

    Franca Marangoni & Andrea Poli

  5. Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research AUTHeR, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

    Cristian Ricci

Authors
  1. Francesco Visioli
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  2. Daniele Del Rio
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  3. Vincenzo Fogliano
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  4. Franca Marangoni
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  5. Cristian Ricci
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  6. Andrea Poli
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Contributions

AP drafted the first version of the manuscript. FV, VF, FM, DDR, and CR contributed to the revision of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Francesco Visioli.

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Competing interests

AP and FM are the Chairman and Scientific Director, respectively, of NFI—Nutrition Foundation of Italy, a non-profit organisation partially supported by Italian and non-Italian Food Companies. All other authors declare no conflict of interest associated with this publication.

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Visioli, F., Del Rio, D., Fogliano, V. et al. Ultra-processed foods and health: are we correctly interpreting the available evidence?. Eur J Clin Nutr 79, 177–180 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-024-01515-8

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