Ultraprocessed foods can impair your ability to concentrate and increase the risk of dementia, even if your overall diet is largely healthy, according to a new study. The findings carry significant implications for Americans, as ultraprocessed items constitute approximately 60 percent of the U.S. diet.
Study Details and Key Findings
Conducted by researchers from Australia and Brazil, the study revealed that consuming just one bag of chips per day is sufficient to reduce attention span. The average attention span for U.S. adults has already dwindled to merely eight seconds, based on separate research conducted last year by Ohio State University.
“There are many different things that can lead to why we're having a hard time focusing or having trouble with attention,” noted Dr. Evita Singh, a psychiatrist with Ohio State’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, in a statement.
While Americans’ attention spans have been gradually declining over decades, the new study indicates that the detrimental effects of ultraprocessed foods manifest within minutes. Cognitive assessments involving more than 2,100 middle-aged adults, whose diets consisted of 41 percent ultraprocessed foods, demonstrated lower scores on mental processing speed and attention following the consumption of a bag of chips.
“We saw a distinct and measurable drop in a person’s ability to focus,” said lead researcher Dr. Barbara Cardoso, a biochemist at Australia’s Monash University, in a press release. These effects occurred irrespective of an individual’s overall dietary choices—even among those following a Mediterranean diet, widely regarded as one of the healthiest eating patterns.
Although the researchers did not propose a specific mechanism for these effects, Cardoso emphasized that the findings reinforce the notion that ultraprocessed foods are detrimental to brain health. The study authors also observed that adults who consumed higher quantities of ultraprocessed foods exhibited increased risk factors for dementia.
Links to Dementia and Cognitive Decline
This aligns with prior research. A 2022 Harvard Medical School study reported a 25 percent elevated risk of dementia among individuals who consumed greater amounts of ultraprocessed foods. Subsequent studies have similarly connected such foods to cognitive decline and dementia risk. Last year, Virginia Tech University researchers linked processed meats and sugary drinks to poor memory and reduced cognitive performance in adults.
However, smoked meats and sugary foods are not the only types of ultraprocessed products. Many items often perceived as healthy, such as granola bars and plant-based meats, also fall into this category. This can lead consumers to overlook nutritional labels for harmful artificial additives and chemicals. According to Cardoso, the additives in ultraprocessed products are likely the primary culprit.
“These additives suggest the link between diet and cognitive function extends beyond just missing out on foods known as healthy, pointing to mechanisms linked to the degree of food processing itself,” she added.
