By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.

Ultraprocessed foods account for over half of U.S. kids’ diets, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Roughly 62% of total calories consumed by children and teens ages 1-18 came from ultraprocessed foods. U.S. adults weren’t far behind, with roughly 53% of their diet coming from ultraprocessed food.

Children ages 6-11 consumed the most ultraprocessed foods (65%). The top five ultraprocessed foods eaten by kids were sandwiches, including burgers, sweet bakery products, savory snacks, pizza and sweetened beverages.

The CDC report covered results gathered August 2021 to August 2023 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner David Kessler told The New York Times Thursday that he’s backing U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s battle against ultraprocessed foods.

The Make America Health Again or MAHA Commission, under Kennedy’s leadership, concluded in its May report that ultraprocessed foods were a chief driver of the childhood chronic disease epidemic. The commission is expected to release a follow-up report this month with strategies for addressing the epidemic.

Kessler, who oversaw the FDA when the agency pushed through quick approvals of the COVID-19 vaccines, said he was willing to set aside his differences with Kennedy on vaccines to focus on addressing ultraprocessed foods.

He told the Times:

“This is the great public health challenge facing us. … Twenty-five percent of American men are going to develop heart failure. Thirty to 40 percent of us are going to be diabetic. Twenty-five percent of us are going to have a stroke. And the primary driver of that is our diet and what we are eating.”

Kessler shared with the Times a citizen petition he submitted to the FDA on late Wednesday in which he argued that the agency has both the authority and scientific evidence to declare that certain core ingredients in ultraprocessed foods are no longer “generally recognized as safe” or GRAS. These include sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup, some refined flours and starches like dextrose, maltodextrin and corn solids.

A citizen petition is a formal request to the FDA that the agency must respond to within 180 days. Kessler’s petition hasn’t yet gone live on the FDA site.

If the FDA acts on Kessler’s request, the food industry may be forced to reformulate or put warning labels on many familiar grocery store items, including certain breakfast cereals, breads, protein bars, yogurts and plant-based meats.

Kessler argues in his petition that modern scientific research has found a close link between consuming refined carbohydrates — such as sweeteners, starches and flours — and numerous negative health outcomes, including weight gain, heart and kidney diseases and certain cancers.

The mounting evidence means the FDA can no longer turn an uncritical eye to foods that contain these ingredients.

Currently, the agency considers such ingredients to be GRAS, which means food companies can include them in their products based on their own assurances that the ingredients are safe, with no safety assessment by the FDA.

In March, Kennedy asked the FDA to explore ways it can close the GRAS loophole.

Exactly which foods count as ‘ultraprocessed’?

The definition of ultraprocessed foods is currently a topic of hot debate.

In its report, the CDC identified ultraprocessed foods using what’s called the NOVA Food Classification System, a method developed in Brazil that categorizes foods by how heavily they were processed.

But critics have voiced concerns about the NOVA system, calling it “confusing and controversial.” They noted the system’s lack of nuance, according to AGFunderNews.

For instance, it potentially ranks whey protein, tofu, whole-grain breakfast cereals with added vitamins and fortified soy in the same category as soda, candy and cookies.

On July 23, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a joint initiative to create a publicly driven definition of ultraprocessed foods.

The agencies published a Request for Information in the Federal Register on July 25 so public stakeholders can share data and ideas on what factors and criteria should be included in a federally recognized uniform definition.

So far, 62 comments have been posted.

According to an HHS press release, a uniform definition “will allow for consistency in research and policy to pave the way for addressing health concerns associated with the consumption of ultra-processed foods.”

According to the Times, Kessler argued that the FDA could effectively regulate ultraprocessed foods without a singular definition by simply regulating their core components.

HHS didn’t immediately respond to The Defender’s request for comment on Kessler’s strategy.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary told the Times in June that he thought a definition would likely encourage companies to label foods as “non-ultraprocessed” as a marketing move, similar to how food manufacturers promote their products as being free from added sugars.

“We do not see ultraprocessed foods as foods to be banned. … We see them as foods to be defined so that markets can compete based on health,” Makary said.

MAHA’s strategic report will be a ‘reckoning of sorts’

Regardless of the vexing task of creating a singular definition, Kennedy’s assault on ultraprocessed foods has wide political support, according to Helena Bottemiller Evich, founder and editor-in-chief of the newsletter Food Fix.

In a July 31 op-ed in the Times, Bottemiller Evich — who has reported on food policy for 15 years — said she’s noticed a huge shift toward bipartisan support in tackling junk food consumption in the U.S.

Many conservative figures fought Michelle Obama’s efforts to curb childhood obesity, she said, but now the majority of Democrats and Republicans support banning processed foods from public school lunches.

Bottemiller Evich wrote:

“This attitude gives the Trump administration a rare political opportunity to make once infeasible policy changes to improve our diets. It’s not just that Mr. Kennedy has the backing of the president.

“He also has an energized grass-roots ‘Make America Healthy Again’ army that could be unleashed to defend his boldest policies. Does the administration realize the power it has, and is it prepared to use it on real reforms?”

It’ll be “a reckoning of sorts” when the MAHA Commission releases its strategy for ending chronic disease in kids, she said. That’s when the public will find out if government leaders are “serious.”

Related articles in The Defender

• RFK Jr.: MAHA Report a ‘Clarion Call’ to End the Chronic Disease Epidemic
• Kennedy Takes Aim at FDA Loophole That Allows Unsafe Ingredients in Food
• ‘First-of-its-kind’ Lawsuit Alleges Addictive Ultraprocessed Foods Caused Teen’s Illnesses
• Food Without Farms: Coke, Nestlé, Pepsi Among Ultra-processed Food Giants Running Global Food Policy

The post Ultraprocessed Foods Make Up Over Half of Kids’ Diet, CDC Report Says appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.

 

IPAK-EDU is grateful to The Defender as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More