It really is a very interesting study. Glad you mentioned it.
Some specifics to share.
Yes the biggest increased risks were
meat/poultry/seafood based ready-to-eat products and sugar sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages
Yeah artificial sweeteners not just sugar.
Also that nearly half of UPFs in this US population were “sauces, spreads, and condiments” and “sweet snacks and desserts” with the small impact of the snacks possibly partly due to nuts and chocolate being in that group:
compelling evidence shows that nuts and (dark) chocolate, common constituents of “sweet snacks and desserts,” are inversely associated with cardiovascular diseases.3536 We observed that dark chocolate in the subgroup “packaged sweet snacks and desserts” was associated with decreased mortality
And of note the confirmation of what sort of mortality leads the increase:
We found that ultra-processed food intake was associated with higher neurodegenerative mortality. Increasing evidence suggests that ultra-processed food is linked to higher risk of central nervous system demyelination (a precursor of multiple sclerosis),40lower cognitive function,41 and dementia.42 Studies have shown that a diet rich in ultra-processed foods may drive neuroinflammation and impairment of the blood-brain barrier, leading to neurodegeneration.4344 Of note, among ultra-processed food subgroups, diary based desserts showed the strongest association with neurodegenerative mortality.
And
a positive association between ultra-processed food intake measured by percentage of energy and respiratory mortality
Just as in the Seventh Day Adventist study. Two conditions I specifically don’t want to die from; I want to drop dead with little to no period of disability, no dementia and please keep me from struggling to breathe doing basic tasks on my way off this mortal coil!