Study links ultra-processed foods with brain changes in healthy adults

Canadian researchers reported an association between higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and small areas of brain damage visible on MRI scans among adults described as healthy. In the study, participants with the highest intake were about 40% more likely to show the changes than those with lower intake.

The findings concern an association, not proof that the foods caused the brain changes. The researchers examined MRI scans from nearly 9,000 people. The study was led by the Population Health Research Institute, or PHRI, and included Canadians aged 35 to 69 who had no history of heart disease and lived in communities across Canada.

The New York Post described the participants as middle-aged and quoted the study’s first author, Russel J. de Souza, saying the finding was unexpected. The reported foods included soft drinks, packaged snacks and sugary breakfast cereals; another account also listed instant noodles and ready-to-eat meals.

These examples indicate the kinds of products covered in the reporting, rather than establishing that any one food was responsible for the MRI findings. Researchers said the brain changes may be early warning signs associated with stroke or later memory problems.

That is a possible implication, not a reported outcome for the study participants: the accounts describe scan findings and the researchers’ interpretation, rather than reporting that participants subsequently had strokes or memory problems.

The two accounts provide different amounts of detail about the study population and food examples, but both report the approximate 40% association and the MRI-based findings. The New York Post attributes the claim about possible early warning signs to the researchers; the other account likewise presents the association as a possibility.

Neither account establishes a causal mechanism. The coverage also places the research in a broader dietary context. The New York Post cited CDC data saying ultra-processed foods made up an average of 55% of daily calories for Americans aged one year and older between August 2021 and August 2023.

That figure describes the U.S. population data, not the Canadian study participants, and does not establish their average intake. The immediate significance is therefore the observed association and the possibility raised by researchers that MRI-visible changes could precede later health problems.

The findings reported here do not establish that changing diet would prevent or reverse those changes. Further interpretation depends on what the study itself measured and on whether subsequent research tests the relationship and its potential causes.