{"id":61458,"date":"2025-08-12T11:10:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T11:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/61458\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T11:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T11:10:16","slug":"americans-eat-half-their-calories-from-ultra-processed-foods-cdc-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/61458\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans eat half their calories from ultra-processed foods, CDC says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most Americans get more than half their calories from ultra-processed\u00a0foods,\u00a0those super-tasty, energy-dense foods typically full of sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats, according to\u00a0a new federal report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nutrition research has\u00a0shown for years\u00a0that ultra-processed foods make up a big chunk <\/a>of the U.S. diet, especially for kids and teens.<\/p>\n

For the first time, however, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed those high levels of consumption, using dietary data collected from August 2021 to August 2023.<\/p>\n

Most Americans get more than half their calories from ultra-processed\u00a0foods, according to\u00a0a new federal report. AP<\/p>\n

The report comes amid growing scrutiny of such foods by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who blames them for causing chronic disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are poisoning ourselves and it\u2019s coming principally from these ultra-processed foods,\u201d Kennedy told Fox News earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Overall, about 55% of total calories consumed by Americans age 1 and older came from ultra-processed foods during that period<\/a>, according to the report. For adults, ultra-processed foods made up about 53% of total calories consumed, but for kids through age 18, it was nearly 62%.<\/p>\n

The top sources included burgers and sandwiches, sweet baked goods, savory snacks, pizza, and sweetened drinks.<\/p>\n

Young children consumed fewer calories from ultra-processed foods than older kids, the report found.<\/p>\n

Adults 60 and older consumed fewer calories from those sources than younger adults. Low-income adults consumed more ultra-processed foods than those with higher incomes.<\/p>\n

The results were not surprising, said co-author Anne Williams, a CDC nutrition expert.<\/p>\n

Overall, about 55% of total calories consumed by Americans age 1 and older came from ultra-processed foods during that period, according to the report. Roman \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

What was surprising was that consumption of ultra-processed foods<\/a> appeared to dip slightly over the past decade. Among adults, total calories from those sources fell from about 56% in 2013-2014 and from nearly 66% for kids in 2017-2018.<\/p>\n

Williams said she couldn\u2019t speculate about the reason for the decline or whether consumption of less processed foods increased.<\/p>\n

But Andrea Deierlein, a nutrition expert at New York University who was not involved in the research, suggested that there may be greater awareness of the potential harms of ultra-processed foods.<\/p>\n

The top sources included burgers and sandwiches, sweet baked goods, savory snacks, pizza, and sweetened drinks. Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are trying, at least in some populations, to decrease their intakes of these foods,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Concern over ultra-processed foods\u2019 health effects has been growing for years, but finding solutions has been difficult. <\/p>\n

Many studies have linked them to obesity, diabetes and heart disease, but they haven\u2019t been able to prove that the foods directly cause those chronic health problems.<\/p>\n

One\u00a0small but influential study\u00a0found that even when diets were matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber and micronutrients, people consumed more calories and gained more weight when they ate ultra-processed foods than when they ate minimally processed foods.<\/p>\n

For adults, ultra-processed foods made up about 53% of total calories consumed, but for kids through age 18, it was nearly 62%. Meritxell Cid \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Research published this week in the\u00a0journal Nature\u00a0found that participants in a clinical trial lost twice as much weight when they ate minimally processed foods \u2014 such as pasta, chicken, fruits and vegetables \u2014 than ultra-processed foods, even those matched for nutrition components and considered healthy, such as ready-to-heat frozen meals, protein bars and shakes.<\/p>\n

Part of the problem is simply defining ultra-processed foods.<\/p>\n

The new CDC report used the most common definition based on the four-tier Nova system developed by Brazilian researchers that classifies foods according to the amount of processing they undergo.<\/p>\n

Research\u00a0found that participants in a clinical trial lost twice as much weight when they ate minimally processed foods \u2014 such as pasta, chicken, fruits and vegetables \u2014 than ultra-processed foods. nerudol \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Such foods tend to be \u201chyperpalatable, energy-dense, low in dietary fiber and contain little or no whole foods, while having high amounts of salt, sweeteners and unhealthy fats,\u201d the CDC report said.<\/p>\n

U.S. health officials recently said there are concerns over whether current definitions \u201caccurately capture\u201d the range of foods that may affect health. <\/p>\n

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department recently\u00a0issued a request for information\u00a0to develop a new, uniform definition of ultra-processed foods for products in the U.S. food supply.<\/p>\n

U.S. health officials recently said there are concerns over whether current definitions \u201caccurately capture\u201d the range of foods that may affect health. juliasudnitskaya \u2013 stock.adobe.c<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Americans should try to reduce ultra-processed foods in their daily diets, Deierlein said.<\/p>\n

For instance, instead of instant oatmeal that may contain added sugar, sodium, artificial colors, and preservatives, use plain oats sweetened with honey or maple syrup. <\/p>\n

Read food packages and nutrition information, she suggested.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that there are less-processed options available for many foods,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most Americans get more than half their calories from ultra-processed\u00a0foods,\u00a0those super-tasty, energy-dense foods typically full of sugar, salt,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[8313,21472,2362,102,19873,6636,650,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-61458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-cdc","tag-food-drink","tag-food-safety","tag-health","tag-junk-food","tag-nutrition","tag-public-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}