Replacing ultra-processed foods (UPFs) with foods that are less processed may reduce the risk of diabetes, a new study suggests.
This does not necessarily mean just unprocessed foods, but also refers to items that have not been processed to the highest level.
Even within UPFs, certain foods are linked to a higher risk of developing the condition, the findings indicate.
Research suggests that people who eat more UPFs are at increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and the new study found that the degree of food processing may have an impact on the level of risk.
According to the findings, every 10% increase in the amount of UPFs in a person’s diet is linked with a 17% increase in diabetes risk, but this risk can be lowered by consuming less-processed foods instead.
The highest risk UPF groups were savoury snacks, animal-based products such as processed meats, ready meals, and sugar-sweetened and artificially-sweetened beverages.
The researchers say this suggests that particular attention should be paid to these foods, and they should be treated differently to breads and cereals.
Professor Rachel Batterham, senior author of the study from UCL Division of Medicine, said: “The UPF subgroup analysis in this study has been revealing and confirms that not all foods categorised as UPF are alike in terms of the health risks associated with them.
“Breads and cereals, for example, are a staple of many people’s diets.
“Based on our results, I think we should treat them differently to savoury snacks or sugary drinks in terms of the dietary advice we provide.”
Samuel Dicken, first author of the study from UCL Division of Medicine, said: “Most studies to date only consider UPF as a whole, but we also suspect that there may be different risks associated with different types of UPF, and the risks of other processing groups have not been well researched.
“Our analysis goes a step further than previous studies, by looking at all four processing groups in the Nova classification to gauge the impact on type 2 diabetes risk when we substitute UPF with less processed foods, as well as looking at nine UPF subgroups.
“The good news is that replacing UPF with less processed foods was associated with a reduced type 2 diabetes risk.”
The degree of processing in foods is most often assessed using the Nova classification, which divides foods into four groups.
These are unprocessed or minimally processed foods (MPF) such as eggs, milk and fruit, and processed culinary ingredients (PCI) such as salt, butter and oil.
Processed foods (PF) are items such as tinned fish, beer and cheese; and UPFs are ready meals, savoury snacks, sweets and desserts.
The new study, led by researchers at UCL, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe in collaboration with experts at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, analysed UPF intake and health outcomes for 311,892 people from eight European countries over 10.9 years on average.
During this time 14,236 people developed type 2 diabetes.
Researchers from UCL analysed data from the Epic study, which has investigated the relationship between diet, lifestyle, and environmental factors, and the incidence of chronic diseases in more than half a million Europeans over time.
Further analysis separated UPFs into subgroups – bread, biscuits and breakfast cereal; sauces, spreads and condiments; sweets and desserts; savoury snacks; plant-based alternatives; animal-based products; ready meals; artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages; alcoholic drinks; other ultra-processed foods – in order to better understand how the level of processing affects type 2 diabetes risk.
Alongside analysing how eating UPFs affected someone’s risk of developing diabetes, the researchers modelled how replacing one of the classifications with another would affect risk.
The results suggest that substituting 10% of UPF in the diet with 10% of MPF/PCI reduced type 2 diabetes risk by 14%.
Substituting 10% of UPFs with 10% of PF reduced diabetes risk by 18%, the study suggests.
The experts say this may be down to the fact that 30-50% of PF intake in this study came from beer and wine, which have been associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes in a previous Epic study.
PF also includes salted nuts, artisanal breads, and preserved fruits and vegetables.
Analysis of the nine UPF subgroups showed that savoury snacks, animal-based products, ready meals, and sugar-sweetened and artificially-sweetened beverages were linked to higher incidence of type 2 diabetes.
