Americans get 55% of their calories from ultra-processed foods, CDC report says
More than half of Americans' calorie intake is from ultra-processed foods, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Not surprising. Want an example of an ultra-processed food?
Bread. Pasta.
Not just Wonderbread or whatever crap from the American grocery store...but any kind of bread, tortilla, etc.
Bread, lots of kinds of meats that aren't just a piece of meat (sausages and ground meats are processed. Not sure about "ultra" processed). All kinds of "basic" stuff.
It does depend on the definition (some sources bring things like bread down into the minimally-processed or some middle category), but if you want unprocessed foods, you're looking at raw fruits and veggies. Cooking counts as processing by some definitions.
If you allow cooking, you can add whole meats, natural herbs and spices, eggs, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, fish, milk, honey...but no frying them, and nothing canned or frozen. And no, you can't turn the milk into cheese.
If you can eat a diet without any processed foods, or even primarily unprocessed foods, that's great! It sounds difficult (and expensive) though, at least if you're eating meat.
Not to mention this says 55% of their calories. If you eat salad for lunch four days a week, and the fifth day you eat a hot dog, you just got 55%+ of your calories from ultra processed foods.
And that's salad without dressing. So not even realistic.
I'm sure it's worth it to try to do better, but honestly 55% doesn't sound that bad to me.
There's a distinction between processed and ultra processed. Normal bread made from flour, water, yeast and salt is processed, not ultra processed. If its got emulsifiers, preservatives, and sugar added then its UPF.
Olives, cheese, traditionally made sausages are processed. That slab of competely uniform reconstituted meat is UPF. The cheese from a can is UPF.
Processed foods are broadly fine. We've been eating them since the dawn of civilisation.
In that case, I can see why it's hard for North Americans to even just stick to regular processed foods.
A load of Wonderbread is $0.99. A loaf of bread at a bakery is maybe $2.99 and half the size. And Wonderbread is available at every store, even some gas stations. Not everyone has a local bakery within the distance of a short drive, let alone a walk.
I know I'm veering off into a different issue, but still.
It's not necessarily because Americans choose to eat crap all the time. It's just that the only realistic choice for a lot of people is ultra-processed, and it can take work to find even just regular "moderately processed" foods, let alone unprocessed foods.
As usual when you see a crazy high percent it’s because they used a very loose definition of “ultra processed”
“Some of the top sources of calories from ultra-processed foods among youth and adults included:
Sandwiches, including burgers Sweet bakery products Savory snacks Sweetened beverages “
After digging into it even deeper and reading the nova classification they used it gets even more arbitrary where they clump a bunch of things into the scary “ultra processed” label for example mechanically separated meat, whey protein, and fruit juice concentrate. But the real kicker and why the number is so high is any food with fructose added to it (not just hfcs) is considered ultra processed
which by lumping so many things into the one category any person who is able to eat a diet free of ultra processed food is going to have a much higher likelihood of having a higher income, living a lower stress life, and regularly exercising
It's not arbitrary. The definition is very clear. Group 4, classified as ultraprocessed. I've broken it up to make it easier to read:
Industrially manufactured food products made up of several ingredients (formulations) including sugar, oils, fats and salt (generally in combination and in higher amounts than in processed foods) and food substances of no or rare culinary use (such as high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, modified starches and protein isolates). Group 1 foods are absent or represent a small proportion of the ingredients in the formulation.
Processes enabling the manufacture of ultra-processed foods include industrial techniques such as extrusion, moulding and pre-frying; application of additives including those whose function is to make the final product palatable or hyperpalatable such as flavours, colourants, non-sugar sweeteners and emulsifiers; and sophisticated packaging, usually with synthetic materials.
Processes and ingredients here are designed to create highly profitable (low-cost ingredients, long shelf-life, emphatic branding), convenient (ready-to-(h)eat or to drink), tasteful alternatives to all other Nova food groups and to freshly prepared dishes and meals.
Ultra-processed foods are operationally distinguishable from processed foods by the presence of food substances of no culinary use (varieties of sugars such as fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, 'fruit juice concentrates', invert sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose and lactose; modified starches; modified oils such as hydrogenated or interesterified oils; and protein sources such as hydrolysed proteins, soya protein isolate, gluten, casein, whey protein and 'mechanically separated meat') or of additives with cosmetic functions (flavours, flavour enhancers, colours, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners and anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling and glazing agents) in their list of ingredients.
Their definition is clear but is still arbitrary. Fruit juice concentrate can be made by just reducing down juice yet fruit juice concentrate is considered ultra processed.
Mechanically separating meat has no effect on its nutrition so why is it a reason to call something “ultra-processed”
Warming sugar, water, and vanilla beans on the stove is technically considered ultraprocessed by nova
Using that from a manufacturing standpoint is at least somewhat acceptable but even then foods with much more complex manufacturing are considered processed vs ultraprocessed. However their method of clumping some bad food with such a wide range of products causes foods that are not heavily processed and are benign for your health to be labeled as unhealthy.
They then never controlled for confounding variables in the meta review study that linked the nova classification of ultraprocessed food to various health conditions.
This is like saying people sleeping outside 10 nights a year is linked to elevated levels of schizophrenia and never controlling for the difference in people sleeping outside due to homelessness and people sleeping outside for camping. Then the known link between people with schizophrenia being homeless drives the correlation and is strong enough to show elevated levels of schizophrenia amongst everyone who spends at least 10 nights outside
It’s just bad science and the fact it wasn’t picked up in peer review is just more evidence of how atrocious the whole field of nutrition is. My personal advice is any study that considers the effects of health outcomes without accounting for socioeconomic status or even relative fitness levels is just trash pop science
and it also looks like it too.
…and the remaining 45% from ultra-mega-processed foods.
