Consumption of ultra-processed food and fried food was found to be linked with a greater risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), noted the large multinational PURE study.

Researchers noted that more ultra-processed food was associated with a higher risk of developing incident IBD (HR 1.82, for 5 servings or more in a day; HR 1.67, for 1 to 4 servings a day, compared to less than 1 serving per day). Fried food intake of one serving a day or more was tied to the greatest risk of IBD (HR 3.02). The authors hypothesize that the association between fried food and IBD might be attributed to the fact that several fried foods, such as chicken nuggets and French fries, are also processed. The study was published recently in the BMJ… (Medpage Today)