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Scientists comment on a study, published in JAMA Network Open, looking at ultraprocessed food intake and body fat and visceral adipose tissue, vascular brain injury, and cognition in middle-aged adults.
Prof Derek Hill, Professor of Medical Imaging, UCL, said:
“This study of thousands of Canadians shows an association between eating ultra processed food and the presence of small blood vessels disease in the brain. The blood vessel disease was assessed by an expert radiologist visually inspecting the MRI brain scans and visually scoring micro bleeds and white matter disease – which is a widely used and reliable approach. This association does not provide evidence of causality: it does not show that eating a large amount of ultra processed food is a risk factor for greater damage to blood vessels in the brain, as that would require a study design that follows individuals over time, rather than just comparing different individuals at one time point. However, it does suggest further research is warranted into the impact of diet on brain blood vessel damage and the possible implications for brain health.”
Prof Jules Griffin, Director of the Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen, said:
“The manuscript by de Souza and colleagues is a well conducted, relatively large-scale epidemiology study to examine whether increased ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption is associated with poorer outcomes in terms of brain health in later life. Following brain changes in ageing is exceptionally challenging, requiring long follow-up times and detailed studies of the individuals, with this study using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and cognitive tests to examine their volunteers. This type of study can only look for associations because of its design and one limitation is that we cannot be certain that increased consumption of UPF cause the brain changes – it is possible the brain changes detected might cause changes in lifestyle that result in increased fat deposition – to understand causation would require studies that follow people across time.
“Another complication is how to standardise the comparisons between groups – for example the group that eat the highest proportion of UPF also consume more Calories in their diet. The authors mathematically correct for this, along with age, sex, city, education level and income, but mathematical corrections can be confounded, and the authors do not correct for the increased consumption of salt, sugar and saturated fat in the diet of those that consume the most UPF. We know that salt, free sugar and saturated fat contribute to poorer health as we age.
“On balance this study adds to the evidence that diet, and in particular components of our diet associated with high UPF consumption (Calorie-dense foods higher in saturated fat, free sugar, salt), may contribute to poorer brain health as we age, and we need studies now to test what causes these associations.”
‘Ultraprocessed Food Intake and Adiposity, Vascular Brain Injury, and Cognition in Middle-Aged Adults’ by Russell J. de Souza et al. was published in JAMA Network Open at 16:00 UK time on Friday 16 October 2026.
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.39118
Declared interests
Prof Derek Hill: “I have no conflict of interest related to this manuscript. I do have research funding of PhD students at UCL from pharmaceutical companies and am a founder of a company that collaboratives with pharmaceutical companies evaluating new treatments.”
Prof Jules Griffin: “I am a consultant for Sitryx, a company specialising in designing drugs to target immunometabolism.
I receive funding from the Scottish Government, European Union, Medical Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the British Heart Foundation.
I received funding from Shimadzu Ltd to present results from a collaborative study at the Metabolomics Society meeting.
I hold shares in GlaxoSmithKline and Haleon plc.”