From heart health to cancer, weight management, and even the environment, the vegan diet seems to tick all the right boxes – on paper at least. However, plant-based ultra-processed foods, such as packaged bread products, cookies, margarine, potato chips and certain beverages, appear to be an exception as these foods could actually be harmful to health, especially the heart. There are countless scientific studies extolling the virtues of the vegan diet, which is said to be beneficial not only for the planet, but also for general health, and especially for heart health.
While it doesn’t yet seem to have dethroned the famous Mediterranean diet, whose diversity, and low red meat and processed food content, are praised by health professionals, plant-based diets are gaining more and more followers around the world. And that’s a good thing, scientists say, except that a new study now points the finger at one potential downside: ultra-processed foods. A team of international researchers has investigated the impact of plant-based ultra-processed foods on overall health.
Their research focused on data from 118,397 participants aged 40 to 69 from the UK Biobank study, who were followed for an average of nine years. Not only was their diet taken into account, but this was also subsequently coupled with data collected from their hospitalisation and mortality (death) records. The food studied was divided into two distinct groups: plant-sourced foods and non-plant/ animal-sourced food.
