An analysis presented at the NUTRITION 2026 conference, which reviewed the eating habits of thousands of adults followed from the 1980s through 2020, found that the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes or premature death varied widely depending on how healthy the overall diet was, but not so much based on how industrially processed each food was.
According to researcher Xiaowen Wang, the analysis's author, universally advising people to avoid ultra-processed foods can, paradoxically, lead to lower diet quality: some ultra-processed foods are relatively healthy, and some minimally processed foods aren't.
The study did identify one clear risk pattern: sugary drinks, whether sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners, were consistently linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic disease, regardless of their processing level.