r/Health • u/CTVNEWS CTV News • 2d ago

article Chips, cereals and frozen meals could raise risk of brain damage and dementia, study finds

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/chips-cereals-and-frozen-meals-could-raise-risk-of-brain-damage-and-dementia-study-finds/
175 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

303

u/tryntafind 2d ago

Nope. Not what the study finds. It looked at ultraprocessed foods generally without specifying products.

23

u/friendofelephants 2d ago

That headline is pretty misleading.

46

u/hoptownky 2d ago

Is this mostly because of the processed foods, or lack of non processed foods. I eat a banana for breakfast a salad for lunch and then pretty much processed crap for dinner and snacks.

I am hoping that the raw fruit and veggies I get counteracts the process crap, but I have no idea.

19

u/Shivs_baby 2d ago

I don’t think it works that way. It’s not about the non processed food counteracting the processed food. The natural food at least displaces eating highly processed food during those meals, so you’re limiting the dose. But the presence of UPF is still an issue. My diet is about 80-90% real food I make myself, but that other 10-20% is a lot of tortilla chips and some deli meat and other convenience things. I’d like to get that percentage even smaller.

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u/king44 2d ago

I would think tortilla chips are one of the least processed types of chip. It's just corn masa salt and oil. The only real processing is grinding the corn and soaking it in lime to get masa.

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u/Shivs_baby 2d ago

You know what? You’re right! The ones I get are the TJs Organic white corn tortilla chips and the only ingredients are organic ground corn, lime, vegetable oil, and salt. My guilt is just slightly eased haha.

3

u/heavyope 2d ago

Yeah you’re right, it doesn’t work that way. It’s all the weird shit they put in UPFs that are bad for you. Eating a daily fruit won’t change that.

2

u/hoptownky 2d ago

So it is more of the danger of UPF than it is lack of nutrients from real foods?

2

u/Shivs_baby 2d ago

It’s both. But the natural foods you consume don’t cancel out the UPFs.

1

u/mayamaiamaea 2d ago

Nooooo are tortilla chips considered highly processed? I eat chips and beans multiple times a week and I thought it was “healthy”

10

u/M00SEK 2d ago

Yea I think a lot of these studies show correlation, not causation.

Someone who typically eats a lot of ultra processed junk, isn’t eating fresh whole foods, exercising, getting enough fiber, sleeping well, ect.

5

u/Edges8 2d ago

HAMILTON, Ont. - A Canada-wide research study that began in 2014, has uncovered a new possible link between brain damage and ultra-processed foods.

“Chips, sweet breakfast cereals, highly processed sweet yogurts and some frozen food meals,” are just some of the items that fall under the ultra-processed food umbrella according to Russell De Souza, health research professor at McMaster University and registered dietitian.

21

u/DinkandDrunk 2d ago

I’m fucked then. We used to go through multiple boxes of family sized cereal and multiple gallons of milk when I was a kid because I’d come home school and house 3-5 bowls.

19

u/SCHawkTakeFlight 2d ago

I don't find this all that shocking. UPF, particularly the high sugar/to easy to digest starch has already been implicated multiple times over to be one of the primary drivers behind heart disease, particularly it has something to with causing chronic inflammation which causes vessel damage, this damage allows for build of cholesterol which then causes restrictions and blockages and onward you go. This study looked at vessel damage in the brain, so it stands to reason, things causing vessel damage in other parts of the body would do so there.

It was a travesty that we villainized fat in the diet many years ago, particularly saturated fat, but also cholesterol. Remember the eat eggs, don't eat eggs, only eat the whites advice. Well it turned out when all fat is removed from food its bland, so what they did was increase sugar and salt. The sugar was increased in so many products that there was not much caloric difference between low fat and full fat options. Additionally, fat is a satiation molecule, so cutting it out of foods left and right led to people being hungry more often. This fad led to an explosion in obesity and increased heart issues. Yes, limit sat fat, but not at the expense of increasing carbs.

Another likely big contributor to vessel damage and the following cascade is dental care. It turns out many of us have some mild form of chronic periodontal disease. The bacteria, while not enough to make us sick, is still escaping into the blood stream, causing mild chronic inflammation in the vessels as the immune system goes about its job. They also think this mechanism is also a contributor now to some forms of dementia. So brush, floss and see the dentist, your heart and brain will thank you :)

6

u/almacst 2d ago

you’re a dental hygienist correct?

7

u/SCHawkTakeFlight 2d ago

Nope, just a nerdy a biomedical engineer.

2

u/almacst 1d ago

Spoken like a dental hygienist!!! I love this

2

u/Lonely-Barnacle1563 1d ago

Great reply, thank you.

28

u/JunkerSupreme 2d ago

We can’t have anything nice.

20

u/Synizs 2d ago

Bro, living increases your risk of dying by 100%.

5

u/babyqueso 2d ago

Only until you die

20

u/StressCanBeGood 2d ago

Mind-blowing how most of the food in US supermarkets are straight up toxic.

9

u/Top_Use4144 2d ago

I don't drink smoke or do drugs. I do coffee and love cereal. Don't take those things.

6

u/BerryLanky 2d ago

Don’t drink don’t smoke. What do you do?

3

u/jpb1111 2d ago

Subtle innuendos follow. There must be something inside

4

u/AnalyticalAlpaca 2d ago

Coffee is good for you so you're safe.

10

u/dkinmn 2d ago

It is absolutely true that you should minimize UPF intake. Anyone who says otherwise for any reason is just wrong. But...also...

"Participants in the study who ate the most ultra-processed food also carried more body fat and more deep belly fat than those who ate less."

Work out. Don't overeat. Get an appropriate amount of fiber IN YOUR DIET if you can. And you can. We have a ton of confounders in any dietary study, and it's obviously not a double blind study that can control for every variable. I'm willing to wager a decent amount of money that a person with little genetic risk who maintains a healthy weight and muscle mass and eats fiber can get away with pretty significant UPF intake before crossing an obvious risk threshold.

The issue is that if you eat UPF and DON'T exercise and DON'T carry the correct weight and DO have generic risk for these negative outcomes, the UPF turbocharge that risk.

5

u/penn2009 2d ago edited 2d ago

Is anything ok to eat? Chips are bad everyone knows but thought the cereals with no sugar (not many granted) and the frozen meals with limited salt (also not many granted) were ok. Not the best choice maybe but not terrible.

4

u/Earesth99 1d ago

Worthless click bate title.

Could? Could? That means maybe, maybe not.

3

u/Shepard21 2d ago

Ok but how bad are cornflakes really? Like not the sugar frosted ones?

1

u/Impossible_Past5358 2d ago

Okay, but also, all upfs are exposed/wrapped in plastics, and we know that plastics also degrade with extreme heat and cold...so you can't really separate that out of the equation...

1

u/iamanoctothorpe 1d ago

I am willing to guess its not the process of freezing and rather its the ingredients themselves?