"The all cause mortality rate among participants in the lowest and highest quarter was 1472 and 1536 per 100 000 person years, respectively"

That sounds like a vanishingly tiny difference between the highest and the lowest quartile.

What am I missing?

Why is this meaningful in any way?

People who eat more ultra processed foods probably have other unhealthy Habits

I doubt someone who exercises, gets good sleep, eats mostly healthy would suffer from increasing their ultra processed food intake

I hope you are only reacting to the headline. The study is very impressive - can you imagine doing anything for 30 years straight?! Also, it’s one thing to say “ya know I hear sugar is bad for you” and quite another to say “it can absolutely increase odds of death here’s data:”

Sugar sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages (1.09, 1.07 to 1.12), dairy based desserts (1.07, 1.04 to 1.10), and ultra-processed breakfast food (1.04, 1.02 to 1.07) were also associated with higher all cause mortality.

“absolutely increase odds of death”

It doesn't say that.

It says "associated with higher all cause mortality".

Previously on HN [1] (106 points, 2 months ago, 112 comments) [0](76 points, 33 comments)

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39598699 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39675111

There are certain ultra processed foods that can be easily cataloged as bad for your health. (McDonald’s menu, I’m looking at you). The line gets a lot blurrier when we talk about certain vegetable oils or vegetables milks.

If anyone has a good meta study on these hyper processed foods that might actually be good. I’d appreciate it.

The most important characteristic of "Ultra-processed" food seems to be the removal of fiber. Removing fiber reduces satiety (making it easy to each much more without feeling full), and increases the glycemic index (creating huge spikes in blood sugar).

No associations found with the two most common causes of death (cardiovascular disease and cancer). So… what deaths does that leave? Pneumonia? Aneurysms? Car accidents?

"Ultra-processed food consumption accounts for 57% of daily energy intake among adults and 67% among youths in the US according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)"

!!

Surprise, surprise: man made plastic that looks like food is not good for you. I know, I know: eat my cereals and whole grains and shut up.