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Study design

The 49th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Nutrition Society of Australia took place in December 2025; this abstract appeared in the July 2026 Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. It reports a cross-sectional analysis of 2,192 dementia-free Australians (mean age 56.6; 75% women). A validated food-frequency questionnaire estimated ultra-processed-food intake, and the Cogstate Brief Battery assessed attention and memory.

Findings

Ultra-processed foods made up 21% of food by weight. After adjustment for demographic, socioeconomic and health factors, each 10-percentage-point increase in UPF share was associated with a 0.05-point lower attention composite (95% CI −0.09 to −0.01; p=0.011). No clear memory association was found. In a genotyped subgroup, an association appeared among APOE ε4 carriers (β −0.10; 95% CI −0.18 to −0.02), but not clearly among non-carriers.

Limitations and disclosures

This is a meeting abstract and cross-sectional association, not a new prospective trial; it cannot establish that UPF intake caused an attention difference. Diet was self-reported, and residual confounding is possible. The subgroup result should not be treated as a gene-specific dietary prescription. The accessible abstract did not state funding or competing interests.

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