THURSDAY, March 19, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Higher consumption of ultraprocessed food (UPF) is associated with an increased risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) events, according to a study published online March 17 in JACC Advances to coincide with the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, being held from March 28 to 30 in New Orleans.
Amier Haidar, M.D., M.P.H., from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles, and colleagues examined the longitudinal association between UPF consumption and ASCVD risk in the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis prospective cohort study of 6,814 U.S. adults aged 45 to 84 years without clinically apparent CVD. Incident CVD events included nonfatal myocardial infarction, resuscitated cardiac arrest, death resulting from coronary heart disease, stroke, and death resulting from stroke.
The researchers noted a 5.1 percent increased risk for ASCVD events in association with each additional daily serving of UPF (hazard ratio, 1.051). Compared with those in the lowest quintile of UPF consumption, those in the highest quintile had a significantly increased risk (hazard ratio, 1.668). There was a significant multiplicative interaction observed between UPF intake and Black race; in stratified analyses, the risk for ASCVD was higher in Black than non-Black Americans (hazard ratios, 1.061 and 1.032, respectively).
"Regardless of the amount of calories you consumed per day, regardless of the overall quality of your diet, and after controlling for common risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity, the risk associated with higher ultraprocessed food intake was still about the same," Haidar said in a statement.