At Hallelujah Diet, we have taught for more than 25 years that animal products are one of the main causes of death and disease. It is one of the five white foods to avoid, the others being white flour, white sugar, white salt, and refined vegetable oil.
It’s easy to assume that if I don’t eat meat, then I can eat anything that comes from a plant. But what if it’s more nuanced than that? What if the real villain isn’t just the animal products, but it’s also factory-made ingredients that end up in your “healthy” snack?
A large 2022 report from the Adventist Health Study II (its AHS-II cohort) suggests that ultra-processed foods may pose a greater threat to longevity than animal products overall. So in this article, we’ll dive into those results, look at what ultra-processed foods really are, and get the bigger context of research to help us answer this question: Are ultra-processed foods actually more dangerous than animal products? Let’s see.
What Exactly Are Ultra-Processed Foods?
Ultra-processed foods are getting a lot of attention these days, but it isn’t clear that everyone knows what they are. They aren’t just your average packaged goods on the shelf in the grocery store. Ultra-processed foods are industrial creations that go far beyond just simple cooking and preservation. According to the NOVA classification system, which is widely used by nutrition researchers, these are formulations made with ingredients from foods along with added ingredients that you don’t find in your typical home kitchen. These are industrial additives to foods. Think of high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, industrial emulsifiers like mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, polysorbate 80, and many specialty ones, preservatives, stabilizers, and artificial flavors—additives designed for shelf stability, mouthfeel, and hyper-palatability. These foods are designed for shelf life, not your life.
There are lots of examples in the supermarket, even in the “healthy” section. Here are a few categories and some of the main industrial ingredients contained therein:
- Plant-based burgers and sausages: Many are laced with isolates, binders, and flavor enhancers to mimic meat. (We talked about avoiding HVP and 3-MCPD here.)
- Industrial produced bread. Today’s bread on the shelf has a lot of ingredients that you don’t recognize,such as dough conditioners and preservatives. Such bread is an ultra-processed food.
- Veggie chips or “natural” snacks: Often fried in refined vegetable oil and dusted with maltodextrin.
- Non-dairy milks and yogurts: Some brands still use high fructose corn syrup and various thickeners beyond simple gums.
- “Health Halo” products: These are items marketed with terms like “natural,” “organic,” “gluten-free,” “vegan,” or “fortified,” leading consumers to believe they are healthier than they actually are, even if they contain high levels of sugar, salt, or unhealthy fats.
Some of these categories have products with high quality ingredients, but you have to check labels carefully. These categories of foods are all created by food engineers. They involve multiple industrial processes and ingredients that you don’t usually have in your home kitchen.
The Adventist Health Study-2: A Vegetarian Lens on Diet and Death
After the successful completion of the first Adventist Health Study, a second one was launched in 2002. It tracked more than 77,000 Seventh-day Adventists in North America.
This group of people had very low smoking rates and very little alcohol use; many of them followed a meat-free diet, with about 50% of self-reported vegetarians. Because of the variation in dietary intakes this population is an excellent cohort to study for dietary effects. (None of them ate enough vegetables, but that is a topic for another article.)
The researchers analyzed food frequency questionnaires from more than 77,000 adults, and they looked especially at the proportion of daily energy from UPFs and also from animal-based foods— meat, dairy, and eggs, and so on.
Then they followed the participants until 2015, and they linked the dietary information to 9,293 all-cause deaths. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35199827/
The table below outlines the basic findings of the study. When the 10% of people eating the most ultra-processed foods (about 48% of their calories, YIKES) was compared with the lowest 10%, there was a 14% increase in overall all-cause mortality. When the same comparison was made for all animal-based foods, there was no significant increase in risk. But when red meat was specifically factored out, looking at the highest intakes versus the lowest intakes, there was a 14% increase in all-cause mortality, similar to what was seen for UPFs.
| Dietary Factor | Comparison (90th vs. 10th Percentile Energy Intake) | Hazard Ratio (HR) for All-Cause Mortality | 95% Confidence Interval (CI) |
| Ultra-Processed Foods | 47.7% vs. 12.1% of calories | 1.14 | 1.07–1.21 |
| All Animal-Based Foods (meats, dairy, eggs) | 25.0% vs. 0.4% of calories | 1.01 | 0.95–1.07 |
| Red Meat Specifically | 6.2% vs. 0% of calories | 1.14 | 1.08–1.22 |
I’ve walked through the grocery store near Loma Linda University and I saw the largest collection of meat analog products I’ve ever seen, and it wasn’t a really large store. So some of these results make sense to me. The dietary pattern of this vegetarian group seems to be somewhat like the standard American diet, except that meat analogs are used as a substitute for meat, and the rest of the diet is very similar.
Putting AHS-2 in Context: UPFs Are a Universal Red Flag
These results from the AHS-2 cohort aren’t alone in raising concern about UPFs. Across various cultures, the research has consistently shown that UPFs lead to higher death rates. Same story.
- Spanish ENRICA Cohort (2019): In 11,898 adults, intake of UPFs was 24% of energy intake. After 7.7 years of follow-up there was a 44% increase in all-cause mortality, comparing those in the upper quartile of intake versus those in the lowest quartile. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31623843/
- French NutriNet-Santé Cohort (2019): In 44,550 adults, a 10% increase in UPF energy share linked to 14% higher all-cause mortality (HR per 10% increment, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.04-1.27; P = .008), with spikes in cardiovascular and cancer deaths. Like AHS-2, animal proteins showed weaker ties. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30742202/
- Three Large USA & UK Cohorts (2024): A total of 108,714 U.S. adults from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (1993-2001), 208,051 UK adults from UK Biobank (2006-2010), and 41,070 U.S. adults from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2018) were included. Comparing those with the upper quartile of UPF intake to the lowest quartile, there was a 16% increase in all-cause mortality and a 17% in cardiovascular mortality. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37690589/
- NHS and HPFS (2024): Pooling data from Nurses’ Health Study, Health Professionals Follow-up Study, (74,563 women and 39,501 men), high UPF intake (top quintile) raised all-cause mortality by 4% and by 9% for all causes other than CVD and cancer. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38719536/
Some of the cohorts show higher risk, like 44%, and some show lower risk, like only 4%, higher all-cause mortality. But the pattern is still consistent. Eating food that comes from a factory plant is much more dangerous than eating food that comes from a farm plant or a garden plant, with minimal processing.
Avoiding Meat Is Not Enough To Be Healthy
Vegetarian diets are well known for reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. But the AHS-2I cohort reveals a weak spot. A 2024 UK study found that British vegetarians get more than half of their calories from UPFs. (This includes about 14% from industrialized bread, which might be a controversial category.) This is a lot higher than the 20-24% seen in other groups, and doesn’t bode well for their long-term health. These snacks that come in packages made in industrialized plants are not health foods.
Here are some practical exchanges:
- Switch out fake meats for tofu or tempeh.
- Blend your own nut milks instead of carton varieties. We have a great recipe for almond milk.
- Get good at reading nutrition labels and lists of ingredients. Pick the products that have a very short list of recognizable ingredients.
The Bottom Line: Eat Real Foods
The study from the AHS-II cohort reveals something that we have known for a long time at Hallelujah Diet: Not only is it animal products, but other junk food and ultra-processed foods are not good for you. They all contribute to an early demise.
This evidence is being found around the world now. It’s not a small group of people thinking this at this point. Aim for a whole foods plant-based diet in order to flourish. Your kitchen, garden, and the produce section of your grocery store hold the real superfoods.