Who consumes more ultra-processed foods – vegetarians or meat eaters?

A recent study has delved into the food habits of meat eaters and vegetarians, to discover who consumes more ultra-processed foods.

Ultra-processed foods (UPF) typically have five or more ingredients, according to the NOVA food classification system developed by University of São Paulo researchers.

The other three categories are unprocessed or minimally processed foods, processed ingredients and processed foods.

"They tend to include many additives and ingredients that are not typically used in home cooking, such as preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, and artificial colours and flavours. These foods generally have a long shelf life," the British Heart Foundation (BHF) explains.

Scientists looked at almost 200,000 people from the UK Biobank project, where they discovered vegetarians consume more UPF than red meat eaters.

However, that said, the difference wasn't too significant with vegetarians eating more UFP by around 1.3 percentage points, and meat eaters at 1.2

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"This UK-based study found higher UPF [ultra-processed food] consumption in vegetarian diets and lower in diets with a modest amount of meat or fish," the study wrote.

"It is important that policies which encourage the urgently needed transition to more sustainable dietary patterns also promote rebalancing diets towards minimally processed foods."

Elsewhere, scientists looked at the impact of consuming UPF in a short amount of time.

Two twin sisters were asked to switch up their diets as a part of a King's College London experiment for BBC Panorama. Aimee, 24, spent two weeks eating ultra-processed foods, while her sister Nancy was asked to consume the same amount of calories – but exclusively eating raw or low-processed foods.

The results revealed that Aimee gained almost a kilo in weight, while her sister lost weight. The test also showed a difference in blood sugar and blood fat levels, with Aimee's worsening.

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