Ultraprocessed Foods Provide Most of Americans’ Calories

BY JENNIFER CALFAS

The Wall Street Journal
Aug 08, 2025

Ultraprocessed foods make up the majority of calories Americans are eating, according to a report released Thursday by the federal government. But there are signs this consumption might be declining.


Sandwiches, baked goods, salty snacks and other ultraprocessed foods accounted for 55% of the calories Americans age 1 and older consumed from August 2021 to August 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics study.


That proportion is getting smaller. For adults, the mean percentage of calories consumed from ultraprocessed foods fell 3 percentage points to 53% since 2018 and for children and teens, it fell nearly 4 percentage points to 61.9%, the report found.


“Statistically, the decline is significant,” said Anne Williams, a senior service fellow at the CDC and lead author of the report. For adults consuming around 2,000 calories a day, the drop between the 2017 to 2018 figures and the latest report translates to around 60 fewer calories a day coming from ultraprocessed foods on average, said Williams.


Ultraprocessed foods have been linked to an array of health issues, including obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and depression. There isn’t a set definition for ultraprocessed foods but researchers consider them foods made with ingredients not normally found in a home kitchen, including high-fructose corn syrup and emulsifiers such as soy lecithin.


Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly scrutinized these foods and their prominence in Americans’ diets, blaming them for the country’s obesity epidemic. The “Make America Healthy Again” report from the Trump administration, released earlier this year, criticized federal dietary guidelines for not addressing these foods. Kennedy said in July that several U.S. agencies would establish a definition for ultraprocessed foods to create more transparency for consumers.


“HHS remains committed to supporting rigorous research and evidence-based approaches to inform dietary guidance and promote healthier food environments nationwide,” an HHS spokesperson said.


These foods can pose a challenge for consumers searching for healthful-seeming options that are both cheap and convenient. Not all ultraprocessed foods are nutritionally equal; some yogurts or whole-grain products still have health benefits, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.


A classification system published by scientists in Brazil determines a food’s level of processing, from unprocessed to ultraprocessed. Processed foods are those with few ingredients and include whole fruit preserved in syrup or cans of tuna preserved in oil. Ultraprocessed foods include ingredients that are beyond those in processed foods, such as artificial sweeteners.


Adults with the highest family income consumed a lower mean percentage of calories from ultraprocessed foods than adults with lower incomes.


The latest CDC report is the first since the Covid-19 pandemic, which interrupted researchers’ data collecting from 2019 to 2020, Williams said.

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