Consuming ultra-processed foods, such as diet sodas, packaged crackers, certain cereals, and yogurts, is linked to higher blood sugar levels in individuals with Type 2 diabetes. This finding comes from a study conducted by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. The research was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Marissa Burgermaster, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at UT and senior author of the study, stated: “There are a lot of ways to look at and measure healthy eating. We set out to see which measurement was associated with blood sugar control in people with Type 2 diabetes. We found that the more ultra-processed foods by weight in a person’s diet, the worse their blood sugar control was, and the more minimally processed or unprocessed foods in a person’s diet, the better their control was.”
The study utilized baseline data from an ongoing clinical trial named Texas Strength Through Resilience in Diabetes Education (TX STRIDE), led by Mary Steinhardt from UT's College of Education. It involved 273 African American adults diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes who were recruited through churches in the Austin area. Participants provided two 24-hour diet recalls along with a blood sample for measuring HbA1C.
The research team examined these diet recalls against three widely used indexes assessing overall dietary quality but found no association with blood glucose control. Instead, they discovered that consuming more grams of ultra-processed food correlated with poorer control over blood sugar levels. Conversely, those who consumed more whole or minimally processed foods showed better glucose management.
Erin Hudson, a graduate student author on the paper, suggested that synthetic flavors, added colors, emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners, and other artificial ingredients might contribute to this effect. She hypothesized that dietary guidelines might need to emphasize reducing ultra-processed food consumption.
For participants not on insulin therapy, an increase of 10% in ultra-processed food intake was linked to an average rise of 0.28 percentage points in HbA1C levels. In contrast, increasing minimally processed or unprocessed food intake by 10% resulted in an average decrease of 0.30 percentage points in HbA1C levels. An HbA1C below 7 is considered ideal for those with Type 2 diabetes; participants whose diets consisted of no more than 18% ultra-processed foods were more likely to achieve this target.
Other authors on the paper include Jaimie N. Davis, Keally Haushalter, Hirofumi Tanaka, and Susan K. Dubois from UT Austin. The National Institutes of Health funded this research.