Data released Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that people in the United States were eating slightly fewer calories from ultraprocessed foods compared with previous years, but nutrition experts caution that this decrease is far from a public health win.
It’s still true that more than half of the daily calories Americans consume come from ultraprocessed foods, defined as those made via industrial methods or with ingredients, like high-fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils, that you wouldn’t typically find in home kitchens.
The new data showed that, on average, 53 percent of the calories adults consumed each day between 2021 and 2023 were from ultraprocessed foods. That share was down from an average of 56 percent between 2017 and 2018. For children up to age 18, that figure was about 62 percent — down from about 66 percent.
The numbers come from the most recent data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES. The survey, which the C.D.C. has been conducting since the 1960s, collects information about Americans’ health and diets. This is the first C.D.C. report of its kind on ultraprocessed food consumption, said Anne M. Williams, a nutrition researcher at the agency and the report’s lead author.
The report comes as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, has warned of the dangers of ultraprocessed foods, a major talking point in his “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
Because the new data accounts only for Americans’ eating habits through 2023, they do not reflect the MAHA movement’s most recent messaging about ultraprocessed foods.
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The post Americans Are Eating Slightly Less Ultraprocessed Food, C.D.C. Data Shows appeared first on New York Times.
