Most Americans get more than half of their calories from the ultra-high processing food, The following is a super subtle, energy-dense food usually filled with sugar, salt and unhealthy fats. New federal report.
For nutritional surveys It will be displayed for years Its ultra-processed foods make up a large part of the US diet, especially for children and teens.
However, for the first time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US confirmed these high levels of consumption using dietary data collected between August 2021 and August 2023.
The report comes amid growing scrutiny of such foods by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who accused him of causing chronic illness.
“We’re addicted to ourselves and mostly come from these ultra processed foods,” Kennedy told Fox News earlier this year.
Overall, according to the report, about 55% of the total calories consumed by Americans aged 1 and over came from foods that were ultra-processed during that period. For adults, ultra-highly processed foods account for about 53% of the total calories consumed, but for children up to the age of 18, it was close to 62%.
The top sauce included burgers and sandwiches, sweet baked goods, delicious snacks, pizza and sweet drinks.
Young children burned more calories from ultra-highly processed foods than older children, the report found. Adults over the age of 60 burned more calories from these sources than younger adults. Low-income adults consumed more ultra-processed foods than higher-income people.
Co-author Anne Williams, a CDC nutrition expert, said the results were not surprising.
What’s surprising is that the consumption of ultra-processed foods appears to be slightly soaked over the past decade. Of adults, the total calories from these sources fell from about 56% in 2013-2014 to about 66% in 2017-2018 children.
Williams said he could not speculate on the reasons for the decline or whether consumption of unprocessed food would increase.
However, Andrea Deierlein, a nutrition expert at New York University, was not involved in the study, suggesting that there may be greater awareness of the potential harms of ultra-highly processed foods.
“At least in some populations, we’re trying to reduce our intake of these foods,” she said.
Concerns about the health effects of ultra-processed foods have increased over the years, but finding solutions has been difficult. Many studies have linked them to obesity, diabetes and heart disease, but have not proven that food directly causes these chronic health problems.
1 Small but influential research Even when diets match up due to calories, sugar, fat, fiber and micronutrients, people burned more calories and gained more weight than they did when eating minimal processed foods.
The study was published this week Journal Nature Participants in the clinical trial lost twice as much weight when eating minimally processed foods (such as pasta, chicken, fruits, vegetables) such as pasta, chicken, fruits, vegetables, etc.) than foods deemed healthy based on their nutritional content.
Part of the problem is simply defining ultra-highly processed foods.
The new CDC report uses the most common definition based on the four-tier NOVA system developed by Brazilian researchers, classifying foods according to the amount of treatment they receive. Such foods “may be “excessive, have high energy density, low dietary fiber, and contain little to no whole foods, but tend to contain large amounts of salt, sweeteners and unhealthy fats,” the CDC report states.
US health officials recently said there were concerns about whether the current definition would “acquire accurately” the range of foods that could affect health. Recent US Food and Drug Administration and Agriculture Administration Information request has been issued Develop new uniform definitions of ultra-processed foods for products in the US food supply.
In the meantime, Americans should try to reduce ultra-processed foods in their daily diet, Deierline said. For example, use plain oats sweetened with honey or maple syrup instead of instant oatmeal, which may contain sugar, sodium, artificial colors, and preservatives. Reading food packaging and nutritional information, she suggested.
“I think there are less processed options available for a lot of food,” she said.
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The Associated Press School of Health Sciences is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institution’s Department of Science and Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content.
