{"id":687935,"date":"2026-03-28T13:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T13:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/687935\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T13:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T13:12:12","slug":"eye-opening-study-into-ultra-processed-foods-and-your-risk-of-heart-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/687935\/","title":{"rendered":"Eye-opening study into ultra-processed foods and your risk of heart problems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If chips, hot dogs, frozen meals and sugary drinks are part of your daily diet, there&#8217;s new research you should know about.<\/p>\n<p>If chips, hot dogs, frozen meals and sugary drinks are part of your daily diet, there\u2019s new research you should know about.\n<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acc.org\/About-ACC\/Press-Releases\/2026\/03\/16\/18\/57\/Ultra-Processed-Foods-Linked-with-Serious-Heart-Problems\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">report from the American College of Cardiology<\/a> found\u00a0people who eat more than nine servings of ultra-processed food a day are an average of 67% more likely to have a heart attack or stroke, or die from heart disease than people who eat one serving a day.<\/p>\n<p>The study also found that with each daily serving, the risk of such an event goes up by more than 5%. Among Black Americans, each additional serving leads to an increase in risk of more than 6%.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Michele Arthurs, a lifestyle medicine physician with Kaiser Permanente, told WTOP that if you\u2019re not sure what you\u2019re eating is ultra-processed, just look at the label.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can see a long list of ingredients, many of which you may not be able to pronounce because they are additives or chemicals that are used for food preservation to increase shelf life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>These kinds of foods also tend to be loaded with sugar, salt and saturated fat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur body, essentially, has to fight with them in order to kind of process them and get them through our system. And this leads to inflammation in the body,\u201d Arthurs said.<\/p>\n<p>She recognized that many people may find it tough to stop eating ultra-processed foods altogether. Instead, she recommends limiting how much you eat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t have that ballpark hot dog,\u201d Arthurs said, adding that cutting it in half and sharing it with someone was also an option.<\/p>\n<p>Other strategies Arthurs recommends to reduce the consumption of ultra-processed foods include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eat a healthy meal before you head to an event, like a baseball game, where you know you\u2019ll be exposed to a lot of ultra-processed foods.<\/li>\n<li>If you like sugary drinks, try alternating with ones that have little or no sugar.<\/li>\n<li>If you love snacking on chips, bring along an orange too, and eat the fruit before diving into the bag of chips.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The findings, based on data from more than 6,800 U.S. adults, is being presented at the ACC\u2019s Annual Scientific Session on March 28-30 in New Orleans. They\u2019re also published in the journal JACC Advances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up <a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/newsletter-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If chips, hot dogs, frozen meals and sugary drinks are part of your daily diet, there&#8217;s new research&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":687936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[86946,210,34131,14464,12347,265139,16887,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-687935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-american-college-of-cardiology","tag-health","tag-heart-attack","tag-heart-health","tag-kaiser-permanente","tag-michelle-basch","tag-ultra-processed-foods","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116306978371502227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}