“Eating a diet high in ultraprocessed foods is associated with an increased risk of dementia, new research shows, adding to the growing list of health problems linked to foods such as packaged cookies, hot dogs and chips.
In a study published Wednesday in the American Journal of Public Health, the group of people who reported eating the highest amount of ultraprocessed foods had a 58% higher risk of later developing dementia and a 46% increased risk of developing cognitive impairment than those who said they ate the least.
The study involved more than 5,300 U.S. adults ages 50 and older and followed them for almost nine years, on average. The researchers, from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and other institutions, aimed to home in on the effect of ultraprocessed foods by accounting for a range of other factors that affect health, including education, income, smoking, physical activity and alcohol use.
Because the research is observational, it can't prove ultraprocessed foods cause dementia and cognitive impairment.
One likely explanation for the link is that diets high in ultraprocessed foods are associated with obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and those illnesses raise the risk of dementia, said Dr. Alex Henney, an endocrinologist at the University of Liverpool who has studied ultraprocessed foods and dementia.
Emerging research is revealing more direct potential reasons for the link between ultraprocessed foods and dementia, said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University.
The results add to a body of scientific evidence linking diets high in ultraprocessed foods to health problems including obesity, cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes. The Trump administration has made a series of moves under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to nudge people away from many foods considered ultraprocessed.
The administration issued new dietary guidelines that advise Americans to avoid highly processed foods with added sugars and salt. Nutrition researchers generally define ultraprocessed foods as items containing ingredients that wouldn't generally be found in a home kitchen, such as emulsifiers -- used to improve the texture of food -- and high-fructose corn syrup.
The study found that diets high in minimally processed foods, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and unprocessed meats, were linked to a decreased risk of dementia and cognitive impairment. People who ate the most minimally processed foods had a 41% lower risk of dementia compared with those who ate the least.
Many ultraprocessed foods are unhealthy because they are high in added sugars, sodium and saturated fat. But those factors alone don't appear to fully explain their links to health problems, researchers say.
The scientists analyzed the effect of specific types of ultraprocessed foods. They found that processed meats, such as bacon, hot dogs and sliced ham, were linked to the highest risk of dementia and cognitive impairment.
The group that ate the most ultraprocessed foods had an average intake of a kilogram a day of such products, more than four times as high as those who ate the least.
Certain additives in ultraprocessed foods, like emulsifiers, can alter the gut microbiome in a way that might cause inflammation. Inflammation has been implicated in many health problems, including dementia.” [1]
1. U.S. News: Ultraprocessed Foods Linked to Higher Risk of Dementia. Petersen, Andrea. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 04 June 2026: A3.
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