The results of the study, published in the British Medical Journal, showed that with the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet increasing by 10% the number of cancers detected jumps up by 12%.
However, the study does not offer a definitive take on ultra-processed foods and cancer, and cannot say whether one causes the other.
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Prof. Tom Sanders at King's College London (not to be confused with Colonel Sanders) for instance, questions the very definition of ultra-processed foods. "This classification seems arbitrary and based on the premise that food produced industrially has a different nutritional and chemical composition from that produced in the home or by artisans. This is not the case," he said.
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Even the accompanying commentary in the British Medical Journal warns against jumping to conclusions, stressing the study was simply "an initial insight".
