Eating more or fewer AGEs—chemicals found in grilled or fried foods—for six weeks doesn’t seem to change inflammation levels in healthy people aged 50 to 69, so short-term diet changes like this...

Older kids (9–10 years old) who eat more packaged and processed foods may have higher levels of a body chemical linked to inflammation, but younger kids don’t show the same pattern.

Eating more processed foods doesn’t seem to change most of the body’s inflammation signals in kids, except maybe for a couple of them.

If you eat the same amount of food with the same carbs, fats, and calories—but just change how many AGEs (chemicals formed when food is cooked at high heat) are in it—for six weeks, your blood sugar, cholesterol, and related body signals don’t change. So, those cooked-food chemicals probably don’t mess with your metabolism in the short term.

Eating more of the kinds of foods that have extra AGEs—like grilled or fried meats—for six weeks doesn’t seem to raise the levels of a specific marker in the blood or urine of healthy middle-aged and older adults, meaning those foods probably don’t make your body’s AGE burden much worse than it already is.