During the past decades, diets have shifted towards an important increase in the degree of food processing and formulation. “Ultra-processed foods” (UPF) now represent more than 50 % of energy intakes in several Western countries. In the very last years, an impressive accumulation of evidence from large-scale epidemiological studies linked regular UPF consumption to diverse adverse health outcomes. In this framework, our team conducted pioneer studies within the prospective e-cohort NutriNet-Santé (n = 170,000) launched in 2009 in France. Dietary intakes were collected using repeated and validated 24-hour dietary records, covering > 3500 food items, which have been categorized using the NOVA classification according to their degree of processing. These analyses highlighted robust significant associations between the consumption of UPF and increased risks of overall and breast cancers (Fiolet BMJ 2018), cardio/cerebrovascular diseases (Srour BMJ 2019), mortality (Schnabel JAMA Int Med 2018), type 2-diabetes (Srour JAMA Int Med 2019), overweight, obesity and weight gain (under review), depressive symptoms (Adjibade BMC Med 2019), and gastro-intestinal disorders (Schnabel AJG 2018). A large number of lifestyle, socio-demographic, anthropometric, medical, behavioral, and nutritional factors were accounted for. Research perspectives now consist in elucidating the potential mechanisms that underlie these associations, notably involving nutritional quality but also various factors such as cocktails of food additives, neoformed compounds created during processes or packaging materials in contact with food. Meanwhile, public health authorities in several countries have recently started to promote unprocessed or minimally processed foods and to recommend limiting the consumption of ultra-processed foods.

在过去的几十年中，饮食已转向食品加工和配制程度的重要提高。现在，“超加工食品”（UPF）占多个西方国家能量摄入量的50％以上。在最近几年中，大规模流行病学研究的大量证据将定期食用UPF与各种不良健康后果联系在一起。在此框架下，我们的团队在预期的电子队列NutriNet-Santé（n = 170,000）于2009年在法国推出。使用重复且经过验证的24小时饮食记录来收集饮食摄入量，涵盖超过3500种食品，这些食物已根据加工程度使用NOVA分类。这些分析突出显示了UPF的摄入量与总体和乳腺癌风险（Fiolet BMJ 2018），心/脑血管疾病（Srour BMJ 2019），死亡率（Schnabel JAMA Int Med 2018），2型糖尿病（Srour）之间的显着显着关联。 JAMA Int Med 2019），超重，肥胖和体重增加（正在审查中），抑郁症状（Adjibade BMC Med 2019）和胃肠道疾病（Schnabel AJG 2018）。占了大量的生活方式，社会人口统计学，人体测量学，医学，行为和营养因素。现在的研究观点是阐明构成这些关联基础的潜在机制，特别是涉及营养质量，还涉及各种因素，例如食品添加剂的混合物，在加工过程中产生的新形成的化合物或与食品接触的包装材料。同时，一些国家的公共卫生当局最近开始推广未加工或最低加工的食品，并建议限制超加工食品的消费。