If your diet leans heavily on chips, soda, and drive-thru dinners, your muscles may be paying a hidden price. A study in the journal Radiology that analyzed 615 participants with an average age of 60 found that people who ate more ultraprocessed foods had more fat threaded through their thigh muscles—regardless of their weight, calorie intake, or exercise habits. That streaky "marbling" between muscles, known as intermuscular fat, is tied to a higher risk of osteoarthritis in the knees and can change how muscles function, researchers say. "We thought maybe it was just obesity or belly fat ... but it was more than that," senior author Dr. Thomas Link of UCSF tells NBC News.
"Addressing obesity is a primary objective and frontline treatment for knee osteoarthritis, yet the findings from this research emphasize that dietary quality warrants greater attention, and weight loss regimens should take into account diet quality beyond caloric restriction and exercise," UCSF's Zehra Akkaya, the study's lead author, adds in a release. Experts compare the ideal to a lean sirloin rather than a fatty ribeye, a University of Kentucky biologist not connected to the research tells NBC: Some fat in muscles is normal, and even useful, but expansion between muscle fibers appears problematic.
Prior research has linked higher muscular fat to greater risks of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, possibly via inflammatory molecules released by fatty muscle. The authors stress the study can't yet prove cause and effect, but they say the pattern adds to concerns about ultraprocessed diets, which tend to be calorie-dense and nutrient-poor. The good news, they note: Long-term shifts toward whole foods and more activity can help reverse the buildup.
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