Diets Higher in Ultraprocessed Foods Linked With Increased Risk of Incident IBD

Higher intake of ultraprocessed food is associated with a heightened risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to a study that spanned more than 116,000 adults across 21 countries. Researchers published their findings online in The BMJ.

“As white meat, unprocessed red meat, dairy, starch, and fruit, vegetables, and legumes were not found to be associated with development of IBD, this study suggests that it might not be the food itself that confers this risk but rather the way the food is processed or ultra-processed,” researchers wrote.

The study included 116,087 adults from low-, middle-, and high-income countries in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Middle East, south Asia, southeast Asia, and China. Participants completed a food frequency questionnaire at baseline and were followed prospectively at least every 3 years.

Over a median follow-up of 9.7 years, 467 study participants developed incident IBD: 90 developed Crohn’s disease, and 377 developed ulcerative colitis.

After adjustment for potential confounding factors, hazard ratios for incident IBD were 1.82 for 5 or more servings of ultraprocessed food per day, and 1.67 for between 1 and 4 servings, compared with less than 1 serving a day, according to the study.

Specific subgroups of ultraprocessed food, such as soft drinks, refined sweetened foods, salty snacks, and processed meat, were each associated with higher hazard ratios of IBD. However, white meat, unprocessed red meat, dairy, starchy foods, and fruit, vegetables, and legumes were not, researchers reported.

“Further studies are needed to identify specific potential contributory factors among processed foods that might be responsible for the observed associations in our study,” they advised.

—Jolynn Tumolo

Reference:

Narula N, Wong ECL, Dehghan M, et al. Association of ultra-processed food intake with risk of inflammatory bowel disease: prospective cohort study. The BMJ. 2021;374:n1554. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1554