Ultra-processed foods and cancer?

A recent article on ultra-processed foods has been gaining widespread attention, even though the study suffers serious methodological issues.

Cover image from MyRecipes with credit to MUKHINA1/GETTY IMAGES

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that modern eating habits have greatly contributed to the morbidities that we are all facing. Processed foods devoid of nutrients, full of carbs, refined fats, and artificial flavors and preservatives are probably one of the main reasons we are dealing with an obesity and diabetes epidemic.

So to be told that processed foods are bad for us is repeating the obvious.

However, just because something is obvious doesn’t mean that any bit of evidence that supports this notion is inherently infallible.

In the last week or two my news feed has been inundated with news reports about a study linking ultra-processed foods to increased cancer risk, such as the one below from Medical News Today:

There’s also another article from Today, and you’ve likely seen plenty others as well floating around the internet.

Again, a pretty obvious assumption that processed foods would be detrimental to our health.

But the problem here isn’t in the conclusions from the study, but more on how this study reaches its conclusions.