Americans are eating more and more ultra-processed foods and fewer and fewer whole foods. This observation was confirmed by a study from New York University (Ultra-processed food consumption among US adults from 2001 to 2018 | The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | Oxford Academic (oup.com) that looked at what adults ate between 2001 and 2018.
The use of ultra-processed foods grew to 57% of our diets while the consumption of whole food fell from 33% of our food intake to 27%. More use of ready-to-eat meals, like frozen dinners increased. We are living in an industrial food environment where most foods marketed to us are industrial formulations and far removed from whole foods.
In the early days of the pandemic, people changed their shopping behaviors to shop less frequently, and sales of ultra-processed foods – boxed macaroni and cheese, canned soups, frozen pizza, salty snacks, and snack bars – increased substantially.
We know from previous research that a higher consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with obesity and heart disease. What is in your shopping cart?
