Jun 25, 2023Other Science241 words2 min read

Why do Americans eat so much junk food?

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Listen to the story (British accent)

In the 80s and 90s, food companies started making a lot of "ultra-processed foods". These foods, like potato chips, frozen meals, soda, and fast food, have a lot of added sugar, salt, fat, artificial colors, and preservatives.

Currently, about 73% of the food in the United States is ultra-processed. But studies show that these foods can cause health problems like diabetes, obesity, and cancer.

Unfortunately, many Americans get more than half of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods.

Nicole Avena, a professor of neuroscience, says that ultra-processed foods can be addictive, just like drugs. It's hard for people to eat just one potato chip.

In the early 2000s, Carlos Monteiro, a researcher from Brazil, studied how food is processed. He made a system to classify foods based on how much they are processed. Ultra-processed foods are in the highest category which means the food tastes good, is addictive, but doesn’t have good nutrition.

In 2018, scientist Kevin Hall did a study with 20 healthy adults. For two weeks, the adults tried two different diets. In one diet, they ate a lot of ultra-processed foods, and in the other diet, they ate mostly natural foods. The people ate 500 more calories per day when they were on the ultra-processed food diet and they felt hungrier.

This study showed that ultra-processed foods make people overeat. The food is made to taste good and trick our brains into thinking it doesn’t have many calories.

Vocabulary22 words

Ultra-processed food: Very unhealthy food that has been made by using lots of machines and chemicals
Frozen meal: A meal that is already cooked and frozen, so you can heat it up and eat it quickly
Artificial color: Color that is not natural and is added to food or things to make them look different
Preservative: Something that keeps food from spoiling or going bad for a long time
Study: the activity of examining/studying something in detail to discover new information; research; investigation
Show: to prove something or make the truth or existence of something known; confirm; demonstrate; to display; to represent
Cause: make something (usually bad) happen; create
Diabetes: A health condition where your body has trouble controlling the amount of sugar in your blood
Obesity: a medical condition in which someone has too much body fat, which can lead to health problems; the state or condition of being very fat or overweight
Cancer: a disease in which some of the body's cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body
Calorie: a unit used in measuring the amount of energy food gives you when eaten and digested
Neuroscience: The study of the brain and how it works
Addictive: When something is very hard to stop doing because it makes you feel really good and you want to do it all the time; unable to stop doing something
Researcher: a person who does research; a person who studies something to find new results
Process: a procedure; a series of actions that you do to achieve a result/finish something; operation;
Classify: To put things into groups based on their similarities
Category: a type, or a group of things having some features that are the same
Nutrition: the process of taking food into the body and the way that it influences your health; process of eating/getting the food necessary for health and growth
Diet: The kind of food and drinks that a person usually eats
Natural: Something that comes from nature and is not made by people; not changed
Trick: A clever or sneaky way to make someone believe or do something
Brain: ?; the organ in humans and animals that we use to think

Discussion questions

In your opinion, why do you think ultra-processed foods have become so popular in recent decades?
Do you think there should be stricter regulations on the production and marketing of ultra-processed foods? Why or why not?
Have you ever tried to reduce or eliminate ultra-processed foods from your diet? If so, what were the challenges you faced?
What are some examples of ultra-processed foods that you commonly consume?

Common questions