Excessive Consumption Of Junk Food Can Cause Faster Aging

Illustration of fast food (Pexels/Robin Stickel)

JAKARTA - Research reveals that fast food or junk food can cause faster aging. This was revealed by research published in the New York Post on Tuesday, November 12, 2024.

Fast foods including ultra-processed food (UPF) are packaged foods, sweet drinks, packaged bread, instant noodles, and others. These foods cause faster aging in the body.

Research conducted in Italy on middle-aged and elderly participants resulted in 14 percent of their daily calories from fast food. This makes them look biologically older than the chronology age or actual age.

Nutritionist Marialaura Bonaccio says fast foods such as original foods that have been processed repeatedly in factories. The process of making fast food makes it lose important nutrition and contain things that are not good for the body, which has an effect on aging.

This complicated process makes foods lose important nutritional substances such as vitamins and fiber. In addition, this food also usually contains a lot of bad sugar, salt, and bad fat for the body," said Marialaura Bonaccio.

In addition, Bonaccio said fast food changes many processes in the body. One of them is the way the body processes sugar and the balance of good bacteria in the intestines.

Even though good bacteria are very important to maintain digestive health. Fast food is also often packaged in plastics that contain harmful substances in the body.

Therefore, it is highly recommended to eat fresh foods that are highly nutritious, healthy diets, and exercise so that the body remains fit and ensures aging comes according to its time. This is because the biological age, cell age, and body tissue are greatly influenced by genetics and healthy lifestyles.