We hear everywhere that we should eat more plant-based food. There is more plant-based food in the supermarkets, like oat milk, almond milk, vegan cheeses, and vegan yoghurts. But is all this healthier for us?

I read a study with a very boring name: “Implications of food ultra-processing on cardiovascular risk considering plant origin foods: an analysis of the UK Biobank cohort.” The researchers wanted to determine how much-processed food changes this effect.

Here's what they did: They looked at what over 118,000 people ate and how healthy their hearts were over about 9 years. They separated the food into four groups:

• Plant-based foods that are not processed much (non-UPF): Think fruits, veggies, grains, and plain milk.

• Plant-based foods that are heavily processed (UPF): Examples include sugary drinks, packaged snacks, and ready-to-eat meals made from plants.

• Animal-based foods that are not processed much (non-UPF): Think fresh meat, fish, and eggs.

• Animal-based foods that are heavily processed (UPF): Think processed meats like sausages and chicken nuggets.

The Main Findings:

• Eating more unprocessed plant foods is good for your heart: People who ate more plant-based non-UPF foods were less likely to have heart problems. For every 10% increase in their diet from this group, their heart disease risk decreased by 7%.

• Eating a lot of highly processed plant foods might be bad for your heart, even if they're plant-based: People who got a large portion of their calories from plant-based UPF foods actually had a higher risk of heart disease. A 10% increase from this group meant a 5% higher chance of heart problems.

• Swapping processed foods for unprocessed plant-based foods could be beneficial: When people replaced some of the processed foods in their diet (from any of the three processed groups) with plant-based non-UPF foods, their chances of having heart problems decreased.

Why is This Important?

Lots of people think that just eating plant-based is always healthier. This study suggests it's more complicated than that!  It's not just about what you eat, but how it's been made. Minimally processed foods are important for a healthy heart, even if the ingredients start as plants. And if you look at ultra-processed food, most of it is actually made from plants, like - chips, biscuits, pasta, rice, crackers, plant-based snacks, etc.

If you are struggling to decrease your ultra-processed food intake, read my blog about “We Are Eating Predigested Food.”

If you’d like to know more about ultra-processed food consumption and caner risk, read more about it here.

In the end, we all should eat more raw and less processed food, like the Mediterranean diet.