The devastating health effects of eating too much junk food are well known by now.
But when it comes to so-called “ultra-processed foods,” not all types are created equal.
A landmark study published this week found that there are seven categories considered the most harmful to health.
Some of them probably weren’t a surprise: soft drinks, microwaveable meals, and brightly colored candy.
Others may have been more impactful: white bread, breakfast bars, and ketchup.
The reason, the study says, is that these seven food groups have multiple more stages of processing, which adds more synthetic ingredients that have little nutritional benefit and can cause harmful effects on the body.
They also contain more artificial ingredients such as colors and dyes, which have been linked to conditions such as hyperactivity and cancer.
DailyMail.com has selected several of the most popular foods from these categories to create a striking graphic warning about the highest risk foods.
The last study was on 100,000 Americans. It lasted more than 30 years.
“We observed strong positive associations between ultra-processed foods and mortality outcomes,” the researchers wrote in the study, published Wednesday in the journal British journal of medicine.
The team found that people who ate the most servings of ultra-processed foods (about seven a day) were four percent more likely to die from any cause than those who limited themselves to three servings daily.
Additionally, they were nine percent more likely to die from neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, Parkinson’s, ALS, and Huntington’s disease.
In particular, the biggest culprits were processed meats like deli meats and jerky, dairy-based desserts like ice cream, and convenient breakfast foods like pre-cooked sausages and Pop-Tarts.
The researchers also warned against chips, condiments, biscuits and even some breads.
Popular chips like Cheetos, Doritos, and Ruffles, for example, get their bright orange color from dyes such as Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and Red 40. Diet Sundrop Soda is also guilty of containing yellow dyes.
States such as California, New York, New Jersey and Missouri have attempted to rule out these dyes because they contain benzidine, a known carcinogen.
According to the FDA, ingestion of free benzidine increases the risk of cancer to just below the threshold of “concern,” or one cancer per million people.
The colors are not directly banned in the EU or the United States. But unlike the United States, European authorities must include a warning label detailing the risks associated with the dyes.
They have been theorized to exacerbate attention problems in children, prompting EU regulators to require product makers to say that the dyes could cause “an adverse effect on children’s activity and attention.”
Lovers of Twinkies and cereals like Cap’n Crunch will also get a dose of yellow 5 and 6.
Researchers found that certain ultra-processed foods, such as ready-to-eat meat and dairy desserts, increased the risk of death by up to 10 percent.
Meanwhile, researchers also pointed to processed meats like Oscar Mayer’s sliced turkey and ham, Hillshire Farm dried salami, and Slim Jims.
This is because they contain nitrates, compounds made up of nitrogen and oxygen atoms.
When ingested, nitrates can undergo a reaction that converts them into a substance called the chemical N-nitroso (NOC).
These can damage the cells that line the intestine, the organ that processes food, which, in turn, can lead to the development of cancer.
Several studies have shown a link between them and certain cancers such as breast and prostate, and a recent report from the World Health Organization declared that processed meat is a “class one carcinogen,” placing it next to with smoking and drinking.
The researchers also pointed to condiments and dressings, many of which, like Heinz tomato ketchup, contain high-fructose corn syrup. Many experts have said that this artificial sugar is responsible for the obesity epidemic in the United States.
This is because it has been linked to blood sugar spikes, problems controlling appetite, and increased calorie intake.
Other sauces and condiments like Sweet Baby Ray’s Original BBQ Sauce and Walmart’s Great Value Maple Syrup also have high fructose corn syrup on their ingredient labels. Plus, there’s also a Coca-Cola bottle full of it.
Meanwhile, dairy-based desserts and certain breads, as well as breakfast options like Pop-Tarts, also increased the risk of death. They’re loaded with emulsifiers, synthetic compounds that help hold ingredients like oil and water together.
Some evidence has suggested that eating foods with emulsifiers may have adverse health consequences.
A Spanish study in mice, for example, analyzed the emulsifiers carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate-80, which are found in thousands of microwave meals, butters and ice creams.
A group of pregnant female mice were given water containing one percent emulsifiers, the maximum allowed by the FDA.
Typically, between 0.25 and 0.8 percent is added to foods.
The team found that the mouse pups experienced unintentional weight loss and anxious behaviors at 10 weeks of age.
Additionally, male mice were more likely to lose weight, while female mice experienced anxiety more frequently.
This is because the emulsifiers altered neuronal connections in the hypothalamus, a brain structure that acts as the body’s control center. The hypothalamus produces leptin, a hormone that causes the body to expend more energy, leading to weight loss.
And a large French study of 100,000 adults published in The lancet Earlier this month they suggested that continued exposure to emulsifiers increased the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Additionally, packaged desserts and candies like Little Debbie’s Zebra Cakes and Teddy Grahams include cornstarch in their ingredients.
It is typically used to thicken soups, stews, sauces, and desserts, and to hold certain fillings together.
According to the USDA, cornstarch has a high glycemic index, meaning it can increase blood sugar. Over time, repeated spikes in blood sugar have been shown to lead to diabetes and obesity.
It is also a refined carbohydrate. One analysis 2020 It found that a diet high in refined carbohydrates was linked to an increased risk of heart disease, obesity and high blood pressure.
However, the BMJ researchers noted that not all ultra-processed foods should be eliminated.
Dr. Mingyang Song, senior author of the study and associate professor of clinical epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said cnn: ‘Cereals and whole-grain breads, for example, are also considered ultra-processed foods, but they contain various beneficial nutrients such as fiber, vitamins and minerals.’
“On the other hand, I think people should try to avoid or limit the consumption of certain ultra-processed foods, such as processed meat, sugary drinks and also potentially artificially sweetened drinks.”