Nine servings of ultra-processed food each day massively increases risk of dying from heart attack or stroke

Nine servings of ultra-processed foods each day increases your risk of dying from heart attack, stroke and heart disease by 67 percent, according to a new analysis of thousands of Americans’ health data.

Each additional serving of salty, fatty or sugary food each day raises the risk of life-threatening conditions by around 5 percent, the American College of Cardiology reported Tuesday. People in the study had been eating this way for more than a decade, with data collected between 2000 and 2012, according to the report.

It may be easier than you think to hit those serving amounts. A serving size of Chips Ahoy! cookies is three cookies, while a serving of Lay’s potato chips is 15 chips. (An eight-ounce bag of Lay’s can contain more than 200 chips.)

“Regardless of the amount of calories you consumed per day, regardless of the overall quality of your diet … the risk associated with higher ultraprocessed food intake was still about the same,” Dr. Amier Haidar, a cardiology fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the lead author of the new research, explained.

Americans get nearly two-thirds of their daily diet from ultra-processed foods which a substantial body of research has linked to heart disease, stroke, cancer, depression and premature death.

People who get the most of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods are at a 47 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease, Florida Atlantic University researchers reported in February.

Sugar, salt, fat and carbohydrates are often higher in fried food, smoked meats and other ultra-processed options, Haidar noted.

“Ultra-processed foods are associated with an increased risk for heart disease, and while many of these products may seem like convenient on-the-go meal or snack options, our findings suggest they should be consumed in moderation,” he said.

Haidar’s study is one of the first to examine ties between ultra-processed foods and heart disease risk in a racially diverse population of American adults, the American College of Cardiology wrote.

The study looked at decades of data from more than 6,800 U.S. adults, between the ages of 45 and 84, gathered from the 1999 federal Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

MESA aims to understand why some racial groups may be at a higher risk from heart disease. Past research using MESA data found that atherosclerosis – a buildup of plaque in the coronary artery that can affect heart health – was tied to local air pollution and disproportionately affects Black Americans.

Haidar’s new analysis of MESA data also showed that Black Americans are disparately impacted by health effects tied to eating ultra-processed foods.

The study found that just one additional serving of ultra-processed foods was associated with a 5.1 percent increased risk of cardiac events – and that the percentage rose to 6.1 percent among Black Americans.

People who ate the most ultra-processed food consumed an average of 9.3 daily servings, while people who ate the least averaged 1.1 servings per day.

The spike for Black Americans suggested to researchers that socio-economic and environmental factors could also play a role, they said. Some minority and low-income communities have a harder time accessing fresh food.

Some impacts of ultra-processed foods in the heart, gut and brain can be reversed over years with a switch to a nutritious and balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and fiber, researchers at Harvard Medicine.