More Than 124,000 U.S. Deaths Annually Are Linked to These Common Pantry Items

Walk into any gas station or grocery store in America, and you’ll see aisle after aisle of ultra-processed junk food. The shiny, colorful packaging and hyper-palatable snacks are designed to be irresistible. And while the occasional cheat meal is no big deal—it’s all about balance, right?—research shows that eating ultra-processed foods (UPFs) regularly may significantly increase your risk of early death.

A new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that every 10% increase in ultra-processed food (UPF) intake is linked to a 2.7% rise in risk of death from all causes.

According to the study, UPFs are classified as industrial products made mostly from food extracts, additives, and little to no whole food. They're typically calorie-dense, nutritionally lacking, and engineered to be cheap, convenient, and hyper-palatable—often replacing healthier, less processed options in the diet.

"UPFs affect health beyond the individual impact of high content of critical nutrients (sodium, trans fats, and sugar) because of the changes in the foods during industrial processing and the use of artificial ingredients, including colorants, artificial flavors and sweeteners, emulsifiers, and many other additives and processing aids, so assessing deaths from all-causes associated with UPF consumption allows an overall estimate of the effect of industrial food processing on health," said lead investigator of the study Eduardo Augusto Fernandes Nilson, DSc.

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Researchers noted that diets high in UPFs are often linked to other lifestyle factors such as lower levels of physical activity, poor overall diet, and lower socioeconomic status, all of which impact health. 

For the study, scientists analyzed data from eight countries. They discovered that in places like the United Kingdom and the United States, where UPFs make up over half of daily calories, they may be linked to 14% of early deaths. In contrast, in countries like Brazil and Colombia, where UPF intake is under 20%, that number drops to about 4%.

"It is concerning that, while in high-income countries UPF consumption is already high but relatively stable for over a decade, in low- and middle-income countries the consumption has continuously increased, meaning that while the attributable burden in high-income countries is currently higher, it is growing in the other countries," Nilson said in a statement. "This shows that policies that disincentivize the consumption of UPFs are urgently needed globally, promoting traditional dietary patterns based on local fresh and minimally processed foods."