People who eat a lot of junk food are more likely to die young, warns new research.
The more ultra-processed products - such as burgers, sausages and chips - you eat, the more likely you are to die prematurely from a preventable death, say scientists.
The new study analyzed nationally representative dietary surveys and mortality data from eight countries - including the UK and United States.
It shows that premature deaths attributable to consumption of ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, increase "significantly" according to their share in a person's total energy intake.
Scientists say their findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, reinforce calls for global action to reduce UPF consumption.
UPFs are ready-to-eat-or-heat industrial formulations made with ingredients extracted from foods or synthesized in labs, with little or no whole foods in their composition.
They are often high in added sugar, fat and salt, and low in protein and fibre.
Examples include ham, sausages, burgers, ice cream, crisps, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals, canned baked beans. biscuits, fizzy drinks, fruit-flavoured yoghurts, instant soups, and some alcoholic drinks such as rum.
UPFs have been gradually replacing traditional foods and meals made from fresh and minimally processed ingredients.
Study lead investigator Dr. Eduardo Nilson said: "UPFs affect health beyond the individual impact of high content of critical nutrients - sodium, trans fats, and sugar - because of the changes in the foods during industrial processing and the use of artificial ingredients, including colourants, artificial flavours and sweeteners, emulsifiers, and many other additives and processing aids.
"So assessing deaths from all-causes associated with UPF consumption allows an overall estimate of the effect of industrial food processing on health."
While previous research has focused on specific dietary risk factors instead of food patterns, the current study modelled data from nationally representative dietary surveys and mortality data from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia and Mexico as well as the UK and USA to link dietary patterns, considering the extent and purpose of industrial food processing, to deaths from all causes.
Dr. Nilson, of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil, said: "We first estimated a linear association between the dietary share of UPFs and all-cause mortality, so that each 10% increase in the participation of UPFs in the diet increases the risk of death from all causes by 3%.
"Then, using the relative risks and the food consumption data for all countries - ranging from 15% of the total energy intake in Colombia, to over 50% of the calories in the United States - we built a model that estimated that the percentage of all-cause premature preventable deaths due to the consumption of UPFs can vary from 4% in countries with lower UPF consumption to almost 14% in countries with the highest UPF consumption.
"For example, in 2018, 124,000 premature deaths were attributable to the consumption of UPFs in the United States."
High consumption of UPFs has been associated with 32 different diseases, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, some types of cancer, and depression.
The new study has, for the first time, estimated the burden of UPF intake on premature deaths from all-causes in different countries.
Dr. Nilson says it shows that the attributable mortality is "significant" in all settings and that addressing UPF consumption should be a global public nutrition priority.
He added: "It is concerning that, while in high-income countries UPF consumption is already high but relatively stable for over a decade, in low- and middle-income countries the consumption has continuously increased, meaning that while the attributable burden in high-income countries is currently higher, it is growing in the other countries.
"This shows that policies that disincentivise the consumption of UPFs are urgently needed globally, promoting traditional dietary patterns based on local fresh and minimally processed foods."