This is one for the newspapers no doubt, so Ready Meals are a risk factor for MS. Does the “salt idea” (causes MS) come back to the table. A few years ago the Great and the Good told us that the MacDonuts culture (Salt & Sugar in processed foods) was a risk factor for M&S and proved it by giving animals a wodge of salt, which would kill a human, to get more EAE. But humans can vomit and meeces can’t and I wonder what happened to the follow-up but the Great and the Good….Nature paper and let them slip off into the Sunset for their next unrelated nature paper I suspect.
This is another one of those risk factor papers implying that processed foods can increase your children’s risk of MS an increased risk by 35%. They adjusted for age at dietary data collection, sex, race, region of residence, and total energy intake…However they didn’t adjust for obesity which is another reported risk factor for childhood MS…But are kids eating processed food more likely to be obese, etc. Are there conditions that are more associated with receiving processed foods as the risk factors?
A healthy balanced diet is what it says on the tin. But what is the real risk? If the prevalence of Childhood MS is 15 per million children this increases to 20 per million children, 5 people are saved by not eating processed foods. When you get ratios of risk they often sound worse and so become more tailor-made for the media to share some doom and gloom.
Machado P, Mazahery H, Black LJ, Tremlett H, Daly A, Pham NM, Tessema GA, Zhu F, Banwell B, Bar-Or A, Marrie RA, Bernstein CN, Mirza AI, Yeh EA, Waubant E, O’Mahony J, Dunlop E; Canadian Demyelinating Disease Network. Higher ultra-processed food consumption is associated with higher likelihood of paediatric-onset multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2026;109:107159.
Objective: To assess associations between consumption of ultra-processed foods and paediatric-onset MS (PoMS).
Methods: We used data from the microbiome sub-study of the Canadian Pediatric Demyelinating Disease Network Study for PoMS cases (symptom onset aged <18 years) and unaffected controls. Data on consumption of ultra-processed foods (defined within the Nova system) were derived from dietary intake data collected using the Block Kids Food Screener. Dietary contribution of ultra-processed foods (% of total grams consumed per day) was estimated. Logistic regression models were used to examine associations between ultra-processed food consumption (continuous and tertiles) and likelihood of PoMS. Models were adjusted for age at dietary data collection, sex, race, region of residence, and total energy intake.
Results: Dietary data were collected from PoMS participants (females=57, males=23) aged 5-28 years and controls (females=30, males=16) aged 8-26 years. Each additional 10% in ultra-processed food consumption was associated with a 35% higher odds of being a PoMS participant (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=1.35, 95% CI 1.05, 1.73). Participants in the highest (versus lowest) tertile for ultra-processed food consumption had over five times higher odds of being a PoMS participant (aOR=5.30, 95% CI 1.36, 20.70).
Conclusion: Participants with PoMS reported greater consumption of ultra-processed foods compared to unaffected peers. More comprehensive longitudinal dietary histories are required to better understand this observation.
COI None
Source: multiple-sclerosis-research.org