Ultra-processed foods could be driving around a quarter of heart disease cases and deaths in Canada, new research suggests.
Data being published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and presented at the International Congress on Obesity in Mexico suggests deaths will fall if people cut their intake of UPFs.
Canadian modelling shows heavy toll
In the new study, experts, including from the University of Montreal, used Canadian modelling data to look at cardiovascular disease, conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels, cases of heart attack and stroke, plus deaths and disability related to cardiovascular disease.
Analysis showed between 23% and 38% of all cardiovascular disease events, such as heart attacks and strokes, in 2019 were attributable to UPF intake.
This equates to 58,200 to 96,000 new cases of cardiovascular disease plus 10,600 to 17,400 cardiovascular disease-related deaths, plus disability for thousands of patients.
Reducing UPF consumption by 20% to 50% may have prevented 16,800 to 45,900 new cases of cardiovascular disease, plus 3,100 to 8,300 cardiovascular disease-related deaths, the experts said.
Canada's UPF consumption rates are similar to those in the United Kingdom, where more than half of daily calories come from these products. Health Canada has already introduced mandatory front-of-package labelling for foods high in sodium, sugars and saturated fat, a step researchers say could help shift purchasing habits.
They concluded: "These findings reinforce the need for clinical and public health interventions aimed at reducing UPF intake as a key component of cardiovascular disease prevention…
"To drive meaningful change in dietary patterns, comprehensive structural measures are essential.
"These include regulations on food taxes, front-of-package labelling, marketing restrictions and reformulation targets aimed at improving food quality."
Policy implications for Canada
When the CVD findings are broken down by food subtype, they are "overwhelmingly driven by sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meat products.
These are foods whose harmfulness has been established for decades on purely nutritional grounds, high free sugar, high saturated fat, high sodium, low fibre, with no need to invoke the concept of industrial processing at all."
The United States, where UPFs account for nearly 60% of calories consumed, faces a comparable burden, making cross-border policy coordination a live issue for regulators.
Examples of UPFs include ice cream, processed meats, crisps, mass-produced bread, some breakfast cereals, biscuits, many ready meals and fizzy drinks.
They also tend to include additives and ingredients that are not used when people cook from scratch, such as preservatives, emulsifiers and artificial colours and flavours.