Research

Energy balance

High consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) in young adult women is associated with a long-term increase in fat mass and a decrease in lean mass by early middle age.

For women, consistently high intake of ultra-processed foods (over 35% of daily grams) in your 20s predicts higher fat mass and lower muscle mass in your late 30s. To mitigate this, prioritize whole foods and minimize UPFs, as they are linked to unfavorable body composition changes over time.

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A high ultra-processed food consumption is associated with a long-term increase in fat mass and a decrease in lean mass in adult women.
Lívia Carolina Sobrinho Rudakoff et al. · Frontiers in Nutrition · 2022

Why this rating

Longitudinal cohort study with high-validity body composition measures (DXA/ADP) and rigorous adjustment for confounders, though observational design prevents causal inference.

Source

Ultra-processed food consumption is associated with increase in fat mass and decrease in lean mass in Brazilian women: A cohort study

Lívia Carolina Sobrinho Rudakoff et al. · Frontiers in Nutrition · 2022

DOI 10.3389/fnut.2022.1006018

cohort · n=1021Cited 25×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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