“…A total of 12 of the 36 included studies were randomized controlled trials [33,34,37,41,43,50,56,57,[59][60][61]67], 8 were cross-sectional studies [36,39,40,44,45,49,51,58], 6 were prospective cohort studies [32,47,55,[63][64][65], 4 were cohort studies [46,52,62,66], 2 were crossover studies [38,53], 2 were randomized non-controlled trials [35,42], and 2 were prospective non-randomized: pre/post studies [48,54]. Telomere length (TL) was measured using saliva samples and ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption was collected using a validated 136-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ); the association between consumption of energy-adjusted UPF and the risk of having short telomeres was evaluated using logistic regression models.…”