TOPLINE

The consumption of foods containing specific ultraprocessing ingredients — known as markers of ultraprocessing — including colouring agents, sweeteners, flavourings, and varieties of sugar, was associated with a higher risk of developing incident arterial hypertension.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers conducted a prospective cohort study using data from the UK Biobank to evaluate the association between specific ingredients used in ultraprocessed foods and the risk of developing incident arterial hypertension.
• They analysed data of 101,560 participants (median age, 56 years) who were free from hypertension at baseline and completed at least one and up to five web-based 24-hour dietary assessments between April 2009 and June 2012.
• To assess exposure to ingredients commonly found in ultraprocessed foods, dietary assessment data were linked to 2459 products from major supermarkets in the UK.
• The outcome was incident arterial hypertension, identified using standardised diagnostic codes. Participants were followed up from their last dietary assessment until the first occurrence of hypertension, loss to follow-up, death, or the end of data collection on May 01, 2023, whichever occurred first.

TAKEAWAY

• Over a median follow-up of 10.5 years, 7633 participants developed incident arterial hypertension.
• The consumption of foods containing colouring agents, sweeteners, flavourings, and varieties of sugar was associated with a higher risk for incident arterial hypertension, with hazard ratios (HRs) of 1.55, 1.42, 1.37, and 1.19, respectively (P < .05 for all).
• Among individual ingredients, a higher consumption of foods containing aspartame, acesulfame, sucralose, xylitol, erythritol, saccharin, bulking agents, dextrose, fructose, hydrolysed protein, and whey protein was associated with a higher risk for incident arterial hypertension, with HRs ranging from 1.10 to 1.65 (P < .05 for all).
• In contrast, the consumption of foods containing flavour enhancer, processing aid, modified oil, added fibre, and protein source ingredients overall was not significantly associated with the risk for incident arterial hypertension.

IN PRACTICE

"[The study] results provide an initial framework for identifying MUPs [markers of ultraprocessing] that should be prioritized in interventions targeting UPFs [ultraprocessed foods] and in future mechanistic research," the researchers of the study wrote.

SOURCE

The study was led by Kathrin Marie Krost and Gerrit Eichner, Justus-Liebig University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany. It was published online on August 03, 2026, in European Heart Journal.

LIMITATIONS

The analysis did not account for changes in dietary exposure over time and remained susceptible to potential residual confounding from unmeasured or imprecisely measured factors. Hypertension was defined using diagnostic codes alone, which may have underestimated the true burden of hypertension and introduced outcome misclassification. Dietary intake was self-reported, which may have limited the accuracy and representativeness of the dietary data.

DISCLOSURES

The study was funded by the Deutsche Diabetes Gesellschaft. Some authors disclosed having involvement in the development of a free nutrition and lifestyle framework that aims to reduce ultraprocessed food intake by tracking flavour, sweetener, and free sugar consumption.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.