Here’s what ultra-processed food does to your blood pressure

Having a high proportion of ultra-processed foods can lead to highly variable blood pressure between day and night, according to a new study.

People whose diet included more unprocessed, or less processed food, had fewer blood pressure fluctuations between day and night.

Examples of ultra-processed foods include ice cream, spaghetti hoops, ham, sausages, crisps and breakfast cereals.

High blood pressure rarely has noticeable symptoms, but around a third of adults in the UK suffer from it.

Many of these people will not realise it, and if left untreated, high blood pressure increases the risk of serious problems including heart attacks and strokes.

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The research used ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) where blood pressure is monitored over time, which enables researchers to evaluate blood pressure ‘dipping’ at night and surging in the morning.

All of these have been found to predict cardiovascular risk.

The researchers write, "Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) allows the assessment of cardiovascular risk markers that cannot be obtained by casual measurement.

"The findings of this study revealed that high consumption of processed food is associated with greater variability in SBP during sleep and greater odds of extreme nocturnal dipping."

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The researchers collected ABMP measurements from 815 patients between the age of 35 and 70 who were enrolled in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil).

Blood pressure was collected every 20 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes at night, and their consumption of foods and beverages were recorded.

The researchers found that high consumption of processed foods was correlated with high blood pressure variability and a high probability of extreme ‘dipping’ at night.

Watch: New study sheds light on risks of ultra-processed foods