Ultra-processed foods such as soft drinks, breakfast cereals and ready-made meals are taking up an increasing part of our daily menu worldwide, reducing the quality of the diet.
This is the conclusion of an international group of researchers in a new series of articles published in The Lancet. A higher intake of ultra-processed foods is also linked to chronic diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Clear shift towards an industrially formulated diet
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According to the researchers, the core of the study can be summarized quite simply: all over the world, traditional meals prepared in the kitchen are slowly but surely making way for a largely industrially composed diet. This mainly concerns products that you do not simply make yourself, that have had multiple process steps and that often contain flavorings, aromas and coloring agents.
Examples are fruit yoghurt, cake, sausage and ready-made lasagna from the supermarket. “We are shifting to an ultra-processed diet,” says researcher Neha Khandpur of Wageningen University & Research, who contributed to the publication. “And that pattern is linked to negative health outcomes.”
A global increase
The researchers analyzed sales data from 93 countries and food diaries from nine countries, ranging from Brazil to the United States. In almost all regions, sales of ultra-processed products (UPFs) have been increasing for years. This has seen a significant jump, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
In Spain, the share of daily energy intake from ultra-processed products has increased from 11 to almost 32 percent in three decades. In Brazil from about ten to twenty percent. Yet this is still little compared to the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. More than half of all calories eaten now come from UPFs. Although the article did not follow the increase in sales and consumption in our country, a Dutch study in 2022 showed that the Dutch also get more than half of their energy from UPFs.
More fat, more sugar, less fiber
A separate research team studied the nutritional value of diets in fourteen countries. This shows that those who eat a lot of UPFs consume more total fat, saturated fat and added sugars on average. They also consume less fiber, proteins and potassium. “That makes it more difficult to meet dietary guidelines for such nutrients,” says Khandpur. And that has an effect on health.
They analyzed more than a hundred existing epidemiological studies, each of which followed the diet of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people for a longer period of time. Based on this, they conclude that there are consistent links between a high intake of ultra-processed foods and chronic conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mortality.
The authors emphasize that these are observations, so the study does not show hard evidence that one thing causes the other. “Association is not the same as cause and effect,” says Khandpur. “But if studies in different countries, in different populations and with different research methods consistently point in the same direction, that is such a strong pattern that we cannot simply ignore it.”
How do UPFs affect health?
There is still much uncertainty about the precise ways in which UPFs affect health. Researchers do know that many of these processed foods are very energy-rich and provide less satiety. As a result, a diet with a high amount of UPFs provides more calories than a diet based on home-cooked meals.
People also appear to eat these products more quickly, partly due to their soft structure and uniform texture, which leads to larger portions. In addition, other mechanisms may play a role, but evidence for this is limited. “There probably isn’t one bad mechanism, one culprit,” says Khandpur. “It is a combination of factors that reinforce each other: the nutritional composition, the structure, the speed at which you eat them and the extent to which they replace full-fledged food.”
Not necessarily unhealthy
However, the processing of food in itself is not always bad. Fermented products, such as tempeh, yogurt or certain cheeses can actually contribute to health. For example, some products have been processed in such a way that they have less saturated fat or a lower energy density than their traditional counterpart. Processing can also make food safer by removing harmful substances, making nutrients more available or extending the shelf life of food to prevent food waste.
Because of their convenience, pleasant taste and attractive appearance, UPFs have become an indispensable part of our lives and diet. But that’s not necessary, according to Khandpur. If people were to reduce the share of ultra-processed products in their diet to the level of the lowest twenty percent of users, the number of people who consume too little fiber or too many calories, sugars or saturated fat would fall sharply.
In Canada, the number of inadequately composed diets would decrease by almost seventy percent, and in the United States even by more than ninety percent. This shows that smaller shifts in consumption can already have a major effect on the quality of the average diet.
More attention now
International organizations are now taking the subject seriously. UNICEF published a report on UPFs and child health in December 2025 and the World Health Organization (WHO) is working on new guidelines and objective tools to identify ultra-processed products.
Real guidelines or quality marks regarding UPFs do not yet exist in the Netherlands. If you want to be more conscious about your diet, Khandpur advises following the Dutch nutritional guidelines or keeping an eye on the Nutri-Score. “The Nutri-Score was not developed with UPFs in mind, but it provides direction and helps you make healthy choices.”
