ArticleAge and ageing2024
Association between ultra-processed food intake and biological ageing in US adults: findings from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2010.
Article in Age and ageing, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Minimally processed, human-grade diet alters canine epigenetic ageing: Results from a pilot study.Veterinary record open · 2026Article
- The role of dietary patterns on epigenetic and inflammatory aging based on the INSPIRE-T study.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Ultra-Processed Foods and Chronic Kidney Disease: Is Inflammaging the Missing Link?Biomolecules · 2026Review
- Ultra-processed foods and accelerated aging in adults: an emerging public health challenge for nutrition and functional health.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Biological ageing, diet quality, and stroke: evidence from two population-based studies and an exploratory hospital-based Chinese cross-sectional dataset.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- High Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods Is Associated with Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Differences in Women: A Pilot Study.Nutrients · 2025Observational
- Ultra-processed foods, biological ageing, and all-cause mortality risk: a prospective cohort study using 172,225 participants from UK Biobank.GeroScience · 2025Article
- Can the Supplementation Diet With Caryocar villosum (Aubl.) Pers Extracts Influence the Behavioral and Metabolic Parameters of Drosophila melanogaster?Archives of insect biochemistry and physiology · 2025Article
- U-shaped association between ultra-processed food intake and overactive bladder in US adults: a national cross-sectional study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Biological Aging Exhibits an Inverted J-Shaped Relationship with Stress Urinary Incontinence in Women.International journal of women's health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe association between ultra-processed food (UPF) intake and markers of biological ageing has been scarcely investigated, despite the evident adverse health effects associated with UPF. This study aimed to test the association between UPF intake and biological ageing, and evaluate how much of this association is accounted for by overall diet quality.
methodsThis cross-sectional study assessed 16 055 participants aged 20-79 years (51% women, 46 ± 0.3 years) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2010. Dietary UPF intake was assessed using the Nova system. Values were expressed as % of total energy intake and were denominated as a continuous variable and in quintiles. Diet quality was assessed with the American Heart Association 2020 and the Healthy Eating Index 2015. Biological ageing was assessed using the PhenoAge algorithm.
resultsFor each 10% of energy intake accounted for by UPF, participants were 0.21 (95%CI 0.16-0.26) years biologically older in terms of PhenoAge. As compared to participants in the lowest UPF quintile (≤39%), those in the highest UPF quintile (68-100%) were 0.86 (95% CI 0.55, 1.16) years older (P-for-trend across quintiles ≤0.001). Adherence to a healthy diet moderately attenuated the relationship between UPF and PhenoAge (adjusted β = 0.14 per 10% increment of UPF).
conclusionsAdults with higher UPF tended to be biologically older. This association is partly independent of diet quality, suggesting that food processing may contribute to biological ageing acceleration. Our findings point to a compelling reason to target UPF consumption to promote healthier ageing.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.