Ultra-processed foods linked to behavioral risks
New studies link high early-childhood intake of ultra-processed foods to greater risks of anxiety, hyperactivity and aggression, and federal guidance now emphasizes more whole foods and less added sugar, reported researchers and the USDA/HHS update argued. The evidence is pushing dietary guidance toward real-food swaps for kids’ meals and snacks.
A cohort of 2,077 Canadian children was analyzed and the study was published March 3, 2026 in JAMA Network Open jamanetwork.com. Dietary records came from the CHILD Cohort Study collected September 2011–April 2018, and the researchers reported that ultra-processed foods provided a mean 45.5% (SD 11.6%) of total energy at age 3 years jamanetwork.com. Each 10% increase in energy from ultra-processed foods was associated with higher Child Behavior Checklist scores for internalizing (β=0.81; 95% CI, 0.43–1.19), externalizing (β=0.47; 95% CI, 0.08–0.87) and total behavior (β=0.64; 95% CI, 0.27–1.01), and statistical models showed replacing 10% of UPF energy with minimally processed foods was linked to lower problem scores jamanetwork.com. The study was led by Kozeta Miliku of the University of Toronto, and the authors recommended early-life interventions such as nutrition standards for child-care settings and public-health campaigns to promote minimally processed foods, according to the University of Toronto news release summarizing the findings utoronto.ca. Federal policy has already shifted: the U.S. Departments of HHS and USDA released the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines on January 7, 2026 calling to “eat real food” and to sharply reduce highly processed foods and added sugars hhs.gov. The Guidelines also retained an upper limit recommending added sugars be kept below 10% of total daily calories, as noted in expert summaries of the 2025–2030 DGAs nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu.
