and health issues, the takeaway seems clear: Processed food isn’t great for you, and the more processed it is, the worse it seems to be for you. At the same time, not all processed food is harmful, and scientists are still trying to understand the specific aspects to avoid.
In general, soft drinks and highly processed meats — such as hot dogs, sausages, and deli meat — carried some of the strongest risks for death. These associations remained across the board, whether people had a better or worse diet and among those classified as normal weight or having obesity. “Both milling and baking have significant impacts on multiple nutrient levels within wheat flour and bread,” said David Killilea, PhD, a research scientist focused on mineral metabolism at the University of California, San Francisco, who also presented at the ASN meeting.
“More-processed and less-processed diets can be equally nutritious , but the more-processed diet may have a longer shelf life and be less costly,” said Julie Hess, PhD, a research nutritionist at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center in North Dakota. Hess presented the results at the ASN meeting.