French Study Finds That Ultra-Processed Plant Foods Increases Risk of Heart Disease by 46 Percent!
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Dec 17, 2025 12 hours, 39 minutes ago
Medical News: A major French study is challenging the popular belief that all plant -based diets are automatically good for the heart. While eating more fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes is often promoted as a healthy lifestyle choice, new findings show that how these foods are made and processed matters just as much as their plant origin.
Ultra-processed plant foods may erase the heart benefits of plant-based diets and raise disease risk dramatically
Researchers from INRAE National Research Institute for Agriculture Food and Environment Inserm Université Sorbonne Paris Nord Université Paris Cité CNAM and the University of Lorraine followed more than 63,000 adults for nearly a decade to understand how different types of plant-based diets affect heart health. Their conclusions reveal a clear and concerning pattern that ultra-processed plant foods can actually raise the risk of serious heart disease.
How The Study Was Conducted
The research team used data from the long running French NutriNet Santé cohort which tracks dietary habits and health outcomes across France. Participants reported everything they ate and drank over multiple days using detailed online food records. This allowed scientists to analyze not only whether foods came from plants or animals but also their nutritional quality and how heavily they were industrially processed.
Using advanced diet scoring systems, the researchers classified eating patterns into healthy or unhealthy plant-based diets and further divided them by whether foods were minimally processed or ultra-processed. Participants were then monitored for up to 15 years to see who developed cardiovascular diseases including coronary heart disease and stroke.
When Plant Based Eating Truly Protects the Heart
The strongest protective effects were seen among people who ate mostly unprocessed or minimally processed plant foods that were naturally rich in fiber vitamins minerals and antioxidants. These included fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds without added sugar, salt, fats or artificial additives.
People who followed this type of diet had a 44 percent lower risk of developing coronary heart disease and a 32 percent lower risk of overall cardiovascular disease compared to those with the poorest quality diets. This
Medical News report highlights that it was not simply eating plant foods but eating them in their natural state that made the difference.
Ultra-Processed Plant Foods Reverse the Benefits
The picture changed dramatically when plant-based diets were dominated by ultra-processed foods. These included packaged snacks, sugary breakfast cereals, sweetened drinks, industrial breads, ready-made meals and processed plant-based substitutes filled with additives preservatives and refined ingredients.
Participants who consumed the highest amounts of unhealthy ultra-processed plant foods had a 46 percent higher risk
of coronary heart disease and a 38 percent higher risk of overall cardiovascular disease. Alarmingly this was the strongest negative association observed in the entire study showing that ultra-processing can completely cancel out the expected benefits of plant-based eating.
Why Food Processing Makes Such a Big Difference
Ultra-processed foods often contain high levels of sugar, unhealthy fats, salt and chemical additives while lacking fiber and protective nutrients. These products are designed to be hyper palatable encouraging overeating and metabolic stress.
Over time they promote inflammation, cholesterol imbalance, weight gain and blood vessel damage all key drivers of heart disease.
In contrast minimally processed plant foods support healthy gut bacteria improve cholesterol levels reduce inflammation and help regulate blood sugar naturally.
The study confirms that nutritional quality and processing level must be considered together not separately.
What This Means for Everyday People
The findings send a clear message that switching to plant-based eating alone is not enough. Choosing whole real foods matters far more than relying on packaged plant-based products marketed as healthy alternatives. Simply replacing meat with ultra-processed plant foods can be worse for the heart than expected.
Conclusions And Public Health Implications
This large-scale French study shows that plant-based diets are not all created equal and that ultra-processed plant foods can significantly increase heart disease risk despite their plant origin. True cardiovascular protection comes from diets rich in natural minimally processed plant foods rather than factory made substitutes. Public health advice should move beyond plant versus animal debates and focus strongly on food quality processing and nutritional integrity to prevent heart disease on a population level.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: The Lancet Regional Health Europe
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(25)00262-5/fulltext
For the latest on the dangers of ultra-processed foods, keep on logging to Thailand
Medical News.
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https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/ultra-processed-foods-could-be-quietly-damaging-the-human-brain
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/study-finds-that-millennials-and-gen-x-are-at-higher-risk-for-17-types-of-cancer-unlike-generations-before-them
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/study-finds-that-consumption-of-ultra-processed-foods-increases-risk-of-glaucoma
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