Children who consume more ultra-processed foods (UPFs) early in life may show worse behavioral outcomes later.
Kids who ate more UPFs at age 3 had higher internalizing behaviors (anxiety, fearfulness, depression) and externalizing behaviors (aggression, hyperactivity) by age 5. The biggest contributors were sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened beverages, breads/cereals, and ready-to-eat meals.
One encouraging finding was that replacing just 10% of UPFs with minimally processed foods was associated with improvements in behavior scores across the board.
It’s a strong argument for aggressively limiting children’s consumption UPFs to support their behavioral, emotional, and mental health development.