Liu Jinzhang, He Qida, Li Linyan
Department of Data Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Geroscience. 2025 Sep 1. doi: 10.1007/s11357-025-01865-6.
BACKGROUND & AIMS: The consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) is rising in modern diets. However, the connection between UPF intake and biological aging still lacks research. This study aims to investigate the association between UPF consumption and biological aging and to explore the mediating effect of various adiposity measures.
We performed a cross-sectional and prospective cohort study in 57,128 individuals included in the UK Biobank using 24-h dietary recall questionnaires. This research employed phenotypic age as biological age, with the age gap calculated as the difference between chronological and biological age. UPF was defined according to the NOVA classification. Linear regression models were employed to estimate the relationship between UPF consumption and biological aging. Mediation analysis was conducted to explore the mediating effect of various adiposity measures, including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, hip circumference, body fat percentage, and waist-to-height ratio, in the observed associations.
Compared to the lowest quartile of UPF weight proportion consumption, the age gap increased by 0.378 years with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of (0.253, 0.504) for phenotypic age in the highest quartile in the cross-sectional study and 0.525 years (0.214, 0.836) in the longitudinal study. Higher UPF energy proportion consumption was associated with accelerated biological aging as well. Adiposity measures significantly mediated the association between UPF weight proportion and biological aging, with mediating proportions ranging from 25.80% to 36.76%.
Higher consumption of UPFs is positively associated with accelerated biological aging, with adiposity measures serving as significant mediators.
在现代饮食中，超加工食品（UPF）的消费量正在上升。然而，UPF摄入量与生物衰老之间的联系仍缺乏研究。本研究旨在调查UPF消费与生物衰老之间的关联，并探讨各种肥胖指标的中介作用。
我们使用24小时饮食回忆问卷，对英国生物银行纳入的57128名个体进行了横断面和前瞻性队列研究。本研究采用表型年龄作为生物年龄，年龄差距计算为实际年龄与生物年龄之差。UPF根据NOVA分类进行定义。采用线性回归模型估计UPF消费与生物衰老之间的关系。进行中介分析，以探讨各种肥胖指标，包括体重指数（BMI）、腰围、臀围、体脂百分比和腰高比，在观察到的关联中的中介作用。
在横断面研究中，与UPF重量比例消费的最低四分位数相比，最高四分位数的表型年龄的年龄差距增加了0.378岁，95%置信区间（CI）为（0.253，0.504）；在纵向研究中增加了0.525岁（0.214，0.836）。较高的UPF能量比例消费也与生物衰老加速有关。肥胖指标显著介导了UPF重量比例与生物衰老之间的关联，中介比例范围为25.80%至36.76%。
较高的UPF消费量与生物衰老加速呈正相关，肥胖指标是重要的中介因素。
