The Study
Plant-Based Diets, Ultra-Processed Foods, and Risks of Mortality and Major Chronic Diseases: A Prospective Cohort Study
This study watched a bunch of people for years and noticed that those who ate more healthy plant foods (like veggies, beans, whole grains) tended to get sick less often. But it didn’t make people change their diets — it just watched what they already ate. So we can’t say eating these foods definitely caused them to be healthier — just that they tended to go together.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Eating lots of fruits, veggies, whole grains, and beans is good for you—even if some of them are processed like bread or plant-based burgers.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 572 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes—this means you don’t need to avoid all processed foods; focus on eating more whole plants and fewer sugary or refined ones, even if they’re labeled 'plant-based'.
- 2People who ate more healthy plant foods had 8–28% lower risk of dying early and 28–31% lower risk of diabetes.
- 3Even if those foods were ultra-processed (like whole grain bread), they still helped.
- 4But if the plant foods were sugary or refined (like soda or white bread), risks went up.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The Lancet Regional Health - Europe
Year
2026
Authors
A. Thompson, A. Jennings, N. Bondonno, A. Cassidy, T. Kühn
Related Content
Claims (6)
Middle-aged adults who follow healthy plant-based diets have a lower risk of dying from any cause and a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, whether or not their diets include ultra-processed foods.
People who follow plant-based diets high in low-nutrient foods have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and dying from any cause, regardless of whether those foods are ultra-processed, because the poor nutritional quality outweighs any benefit from less processing.
People who follow a plant-based diet rich in ultra-processed foods have an 11% lower rate of cardiovascular disease compared to those who follow a plant-based diet with fewer ultra-processed foods. Those eating the low-ultra-processed-food version show no measurable difference in cardiovascular disease rates.
Healthy plant-based diets have the same nutrient quality whether they include ultra-processed or minimally processed foods, and their health benefits come from the nutrients they contain, not how processed the foods are.
People who eat ultra-processed foods like sugary drinks and white bread have higher rates of death, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, while those who eat ultra-processed foods made with whole grains have lower rates of these conditions.
People who consume large amounts of animal protein and ultra-processed foods have higher levels of systemic inflammation and a higher incidence of autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular disease.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.