Ultra-Processed Foods Bad For Bone Health, Researchers Say

Posted March 13, 2026

Ultra-Processed Foods Bad For Bone Health, Researchers Say

“That stuff will make your teeth rot.”

For decades, parents have tried to steer kids away from junk food with that simple warning.

It turns out such food is bad for your bones as well, a new study says.

People who eat more ultra-processed foods tend to have lower bone density and a higher risk of hip fractures, researchers recently reported in The British Journal of Nutrition.

For every 3.7 extra servings eaten per day, a person’s risk of hip fracture increases by nearly 11%, researchers found.

That means every slice of frozen pizza, every bowl of breakfast cereal, every sugary soda and every ready-to-heat meal adds to a person’s risk of brittle, easily broken bones, researchers said.

“Ultra-processed foods can be easily found on any trip to the grocery store, and these findings add to concerns of how they may affect our bone health,” researcher Dr. Lu Qi, a professor of public health at Tulane University in New Orleans, said in a news release.

Ultra-processed foods are made mostly from substances extracted from whole foods, like saturated fats, starches and added sugars. They also contain a wide variety of additives to make them more tasty, attractive and shelf-stable.

These foods account for about 55% of total calories consumed by Americans, researchers said in background notes.

For the new study, researchers tracked the diet and health of nearly 164,000 people participating in UK Biobank, a long-term health research project in the United Kingdom.

Results showed that people on average consumed about eight servings of ultra-processed foods daily. Moreover, the more they ate, the greater their risk for lower bone density.

“Our study cohort was followed for over 12 years, and we found that high intakes of ultra-processed foods were linked to a reduction in bone mineral density at several sites, including key areas of the upper femur and the lumbar spine region,” Qi said.

The negative relationship between ultra-processed foods and bone density was most apparent among adults younger than 65 and people who are underweight, researchers found.

Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. Researchers said low BMI is a risk factor for poor bone health, and might worsen the effects of ultra-processed foods on bone density, researchers said.

Likewise, younger adults under 65 might have stronger digestion that absorbs more of the unhealthy ingredients in those foods, researchers said.

“Our results are not surprising,” Qi said. “Ultra-processed foods have been consistently associated with various nutrition-related disorders and bone health depends on proper nutrition.”

More information

Yale School of Medicine has more on ultra-processed foods and health.

SOURCE: Tulane University, news release, March 11, 2026