Americans aren’t turning to ultra-processed foods as much as they used to, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but consumption still remains high.
“Processed foods are foods that don’t look like [how] they looked when they were first harvested,” Joan Ifland, an expert on processed food addiction, told CNBC Make It in 2023.
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.”
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 data.
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.
