A new study from Brazil offers more evidence that eating a diet of highly processed foods is dangerous to your health. Ultra-processed foods such as hot dogs, chips, soda, and ice cream not only trigger obesity and high cholesterol, but they may also cause premature death.

According to NBC News, the study published Monday in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine estimated that in 2019, the deaths of around 57,000 Brazilian people between the ages of 30 and 69 could be attributed to the consumption of ultra-processed food. The authors of the study said that reducing the intake of highly processed foods by 10% to 50% “could potentially prevent between 5,000 to 26,300 deaths.”

The researchers compared the relative mortality risk of people who consumed large amounts of processed foods to those who ate far less. They focused on this age group because the World Health Organization considers death from noncommunicable diseases to be premature at those ages.

The lead author Eduardo Nilson, a nutrition researcher at the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Public Health at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, said he believes “it is very likely that heart disease is among the main factors” contributing to these premature deaths. Diabetes, cancer, obesity, and chronic kidney disease may play a role as well.

Foods that are considered overly processed usually contain more artificial ingredients than whole foods. These may include flavorings, colorings and other additives that are often found in packaged products, such as instant noodles and frozen foods. Nilson said that in Brazil, the most likely culprits are salted crackers, cookies, mass-produced breads and cakes, meat products like ham and hot dogs and sugar-sweetened beverages.

The researchers said that their data revealed Brazilians, for the most part, don’t consume as much processed foods as Americans. About a quarter of the adult population consumes up to 50% of its calories from highly processed foods, said Nilson. In the U.S., ultra-processed foods account for about 57% of daily calories, says NBC News. Based on that figure, Nilson estimates that the U.S. could expect even more premature deaths from eating this type of food.

Some experts like Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says that not all foods with loads of ingredients on the label are harmful to your health. Some, like whole grain breads and cereals, also have lots of fiber which can lower the risk of heart disease and cancer. Instead, he said, we should focus on foods that have a proven link to premature death. For example, sugary beverages like sodas cause 184,000 adult deaths per year around the world.

“In general, there’s no question that Brazilians and Americans and a lot of other people are eating way too much junk food,’ said Willett. “Collectively, they add up to a big chunk of preventable mortality.”