Overview
- Women reporting the highest intake had a 45% higher risk of conventional adenomas than the lowest consumers, averaging about 10 versus 3 daily servings of ultra-processed foods.
- Participants consumed a mean 5.7 servings per day, accounting for roughly 35% of calories across the cohort.
- Using 24 years of Nurses' Health Study II data, researchers reviewed colonoscopy findings from 29,105 women with at least two lower endoscopies before age 50 and identified 2,787 with precursor polyps.
- No association was seen for serrated lesions, which are a different precursor type less tied to early-onset disease.
- Investigators emphasize the observational design and cohort limits and advise cutting back on ultra-processed foods while pursuing replication, improved food categorization and studies of biological mechanisms and other risk factors.