{"id":159342,"date":"2025-08-19T21:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T21:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/159342\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T21:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T21:03:11","slug":"americans-are-eating-too-many-ultra-processed-foods-here-are-swaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/159342\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans are eating too many ultra-processed foods\u2014here are swaps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Americans aren’t turning to ultra-processed foods as much as they used to, according to new data<\/a> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but consumption still remains high.<\/p>\n

“Processed foods are foods that don’t look like [how] they looked when they were first harvested,” Joan Ifland<\/a>, an expert on processed food addiction, told CNBC Make It<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

These processes include “powdering, liquifying, making into a syrup or a crystal, removing the fiber and grounding into a flour [and] heating to such a high temperature that the nutrients are vaporized.”<\/p>\n

Between 2021 and 2023, an average of 53% of all calories consumed by U.S. adults ages 19 and older came from ultra-processed foods, down from 56% in 2017 and 2018, according to the CDC<\/a> data.<\/p>\n

For children 18 and younger, between 2021 and 2023, an average of about 62% of their consumed calories came from ultra-processed foods. That’s down from around 66% in 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n

The CDC collected the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey<\/a>, a survey that has polled Americans about their health choices since the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

Four ultra-processed foods were the most popular among both kids and adults:<\/p>\n