Snacks, sugary drinks, ready-to-defrost meals are ultra-processed foods. Foods rich in preservatives, sweeteners, colourings, in which natural ingredients are often a distant memory, which damage our health and well-being. And in often unexpected ways. Any examples? A large study led by researchers from the Sorbonne-Paris-Nord University, and published in recent weeks in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, reveals that excessive consumption of ultra-processed cubes is linked to a greater risk of suffering from chronic insomnia.
“In a period in which more and more foods are highly processed and sleep disorders are also widespread, it is important to evaluate whether diet can contribute in a positive or negative way to the quality of sleep,” explains Marie-Pierre St-Onge, researcher from Columbia University who collaborated on the study. “The consumption of ultra-processed foods is increasing around the world, and has already been linked to numerous health problems, such as diabetes, obesity and cancer.”
To verify the effects of a diet rich in ultra-processed foods on sleep, the authors of the study used information relating to 38,500 French adults collected during the NutriNet-Santé project, which between 2013 and 2015 evaluated the participants' diet with every six months, and the effects of this on various health variables, including sleep.
On average, study participants reported consumption of ultra-processed foods that amounted to about 16 percent of their daily calories. And approximately 20% experienced symptoms compatible with a diagnosis of chronic insomnia during the period studied. Looking at the individual participants, a statistically significant link also emerged between ultra-processed foods and insomnia: sleep problems were in fact much more common in people who consumed the greatest quantities. The effect is also not influenced by sex, nor by socio-demographic characteristics, general diet quality, lifestyle, or mental health aspects.
The study is not designed to prove a causal link between ultra-processed foods and insomnia (it can only identify a statistical link), but the fact that more and more research is bringing to light the harmful effects of these processed foods makes the findings extremely plausible. . The authors therefore hope that in the future new research will investigate the possible causal mechanism by which ultra-processed foods can influence the quality of sleep. In the meantime, their advice for those struggling with sleep disorders is to evaluate their diet and the possibility of eliminating, or at least reducing as much as possible, the consumption of ultra-processed foods.