Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Within the last couple of years, a stunning number of articles in the scientific literature have been published about ultra processed foods. None of these have been favourable. These foods have been linked with obesity, cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Now a new association has been unearthed. Analysis of ten studies that furnished data about mental status and diets of over 800,000 individuals found that high versus low ultra processed food (UPF) consumption was associated with an increased risk of dementia. Calculations showed that if 100 low UPF consumers who have no symptoms of dementia are compared with 100 high UPF consumers, there would be an expected 44 cases of dementia in the latter group. That is frightening enough start questioning where one’s diet lies on the high to low processed food scale.
This means getting a feel for what is really meant by processed foods. There would be no problem in differentiating between a meal of grilled chicken with a vegetable salad and one of chicken McNuggets with French fries even though there is processing involved in both. But what about frozen Lean Cuisine Pizza versus frozen Bessie’s Revenge Screamin’ Sicilian Pizza? Both are obviously highly processed foods, but is there a significant difference between their impact on health? That is exactly the type of information a group of researchers aimed to find out by establishing a machine learning system that was able to classify foods in term of their extent of processing and then determining if a diet that takes into account this system is able to predict disease patterns.
The “Food Processing Score (FPro)” they developed takes into account ingredients as listed on food labels, the established NOVA classification system that ranks foods in four categories depending on extent of processing and the nutritional changes that foods undergo during processing. Raw onions, for example, have quite a different chemical profile from cooked onions. Based on this, a “GroceryDB database,” a percentile ranking of some 50,000 foods based on their FPro scores was developed. For example, in the frozen Pizza category, Screamin Sicilian gets a ranking of 4, meaning that 96% of all the pizzas evaluated are more highly processed. Lean Cuisine pizza ranks at 99, meaning that only 1% of pizzas are more processed.
Then the question is whether this is a meaningful difference when it comes to impact on health. To answer this, the researchers also developed an “Individual Food Processing Score (iFPro)” that is based on the FPro score of each food consumed, the number of different dishes consumed, and the calories contributed by each food item. Then, searching through available studies that track diets and diseases, the researchers investigated whether the iFPro score for individuals was able to predict risk of disease. Indeed, they found that the risk of cancer, heart disease, arthritis, metabolic syndrome and excess body fat was predictable based on the iFPro score. The lower the score, meaning fewer processed foods, the less likely the disease. Also predictable were nutrient deficiencies such as vitamins and carotenes and greater exposure to potentially problematic food components such as acrylamide, bisphenol A and phthalates. What all this means is that not all processed foods are the same and even switching from one processed food to another may make a difference. Choosing the Screamin Sicilian pizza over Lean Cuisine would therefore make sense. But the real screaming should be about reducing all highly processed foods in favour of home cooking.
Within the last couple of years, a stunning number of articles in the scientific literature have been published about ultra processed foods. None of these have been favourable. These foods have been linked with obesity, cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Now a new association has been unearthed. Analysis of ten studies that furnished data about mental status and diets of over 800,000 individuals found that high versus low ultra processed food (UPF) consumption was associated with an increased risk of dementia. Calculations showed that if 100 low UPF consumers who have no symptoms of dementia are compared with 100 high UPF consumers, there would be an expected 44 cases of dementia in the latter group. That is frightening enough start questioning where one’s diet lies on the high to low processed food scale.
This means getting a feel for what is really meant by processed foods. There would be no problem in differentiating between a meal of grilled chicken with a vegetable salad and one of chicken McNuggets with French fries even though there is processing involved in both. But what about frozen Lean Cuisine Pizza versus frozen Bessie’s Revenge Screamin’ Sicilian Pizza? Both are obviously highly processed foods, but is there a significant difference between their impact on health? That is exactly the type of information a group of researchers aimed to find out by establishing a machine learning system that was able to classify foods in term of their extent of processing and then determining if a diet that takes into account this system is able to predict disease patterns.
The “Food Processing Score (FPro)” they developed takes into account ingredients as listed on food labels, the established NOVA classification system that ranks foods in four categories depending on extent of processing and the nutritional changes that foods undergo during processing. Raw onions, for example, have quite a different chemical profile from cooked onions. Based on this, a “GroceryDB database,” a percentile ranking of some 50,000 foods based on their FPro scores was developed. For example, in the frozen Pizza category, Screamin Sicilian gets a ranking of 4, meaning that 96% of all the pizzas evaluated are more highly processed. Lean Cuisine pizza ranks at 99, meaning that only 1% of pizzas are more processed.
Then the question is whether this is a meaningful difference when it comes to impact on health. To answer this, the researchers also developed an “Individual Food Processing Score (iFPro)” that is based on the FPro score of each food consumed, the number of different dishes consumed, and the calories contributed by each food item. Then, searching through available studies that track diets and diseases, the researchers investigated whether the iFPro score for individuals was able to predict risk of disease. Indeed, they found that the risk of cancer, heart disease, arthritis, metabolic syndrome and excess body fat was predictable based on the iFPro score. The lower the score, meaning fewer processed foods, the less likely the disease. Also predictable were nutrient deficiencies such as vitamins and carotenes and greater exposure to potentially problematic food components such as acrylamide, bisphenol A and phthalates. What all this means is that not all processed foods are the same and even switching from one processed food to another may make a difference. Choosing the Screamin Sicilian pizza over Lean Cuisine would therefore make sense. But the real screaming should be about reducing all highly processed foods in favour of home cooking.
