How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods
157 comments
·October 16, 2025tptacek
Ekaros
I suppose it would not be bacon without curing. But I suppose uncured bacon would be thinly cut pork belly...
For curing you really need only salt(or nitrite or sugar). Nitrates do have benefits in longer processes.
supportengineer
I only get the bacon that says "No nitrates, no nitrites"
tptacek
If you're talking about American-style bacon, and it tastes like bacon, there's no such thing. They're just exploiting labeling rules by selecting very specific nitrite sources. Nitrites are what give bacon (and ham) its flavor.
<strike>This is before we get to the whole premise of avoiding nitrates. Would you eat a beet? That's a serving of industrial bacon's worth of nitrates right there.</strike>
Later
(Actually, super bad example, since the concern is nitrosamines which are formed in the presence of proteins. The point about the illegitimacy of nitrite-free bacon stands!)
supportengineer
I fucking hate beets.
For bacon, what do you think of these?
Applegate:
https://www.raleys.com/product/10400628/applegate-naturals-h...
Coleman:
https://www.raleys.com/product/103101180/coleman-natural-bac...
littlestymaar
> Nitrites are what give bacon (and ham) its flavor.
Are you sure about that?
Because it's the first time ever I stumbled upon this argument.
The explanation I heard is that there are legit bacterial food safety concerns (salmonella and listeria, IIRC) that justify using nitrites even if they are by themself harmful, the benefit/risk ratio is simply favorable to nitrites.
aidenn0
That means they use celery powder as the source of nitrates, not that it has no nitrates.
Insanity
As a European who moved to Canada and spends a fair amount of time in the States, one thing that really surprised me is how hard it is to find healthy food options compared to the unhealthy ones. Food was a bit of a concern before moving, but I didn't know just how frustrating it would be.
Even something as simple as Yogurt is usually insanely sweet / sugary compared to European variants. Ingredients that are banned in Europe are regularly found in products, and something as simple as bread has a ton of preservatives (as the article shows).
And I'm vegetarian, I assume for people who eat meat there's the additional concern of antibiotics resistance due to the antibiotics given to livestock.
nradov
Every grocery store where I've shopped has yogurt with no added sugar. It's right there on the shelf, just look at the label.
Antibiotic resistance is a concern but the FDA has made progress in that area.
https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/safety-health/antimicr...
The EU bans routine antibiotic use for promoting animal growth but antibiotics are still widely used for other purposes.
https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/first-report-eu-wide-sales...
0xbadcafebee
The US still used 6.1 million kilograms of medically important antibiotics for animal farming in 2023. It was only down 2% from the year before. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/antimicrobial-stewardship/fda-rep...
throwway120385
It's marked as "plain" yogurt. You can still find adulterants in it, just not added sugars. For example Trader Joe's "plain yogurt" is a mixture of yogurt and buttermilk.
nradov
I don't understand your comment. Trader Joe's sells plain yogurt with no added buttermilk.
https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/greek-whole-mil...
Or you can buy essentially the same thing for less at Walmart.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mountain-High-Low-Fat-Yogurt-Vani...
While there are some people who live in "food deserts" with very limited options, complaints by most HN users about the difficulty of finding healthy food don't align with reality.
yesb
Plain yogurt is strictly defined by the FDA. It's when you have flavored versions that the rules get loose.
For example this contains only milk, cream, bacteria: https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/plain-whole-mil...
This is basically sugary milk with thickeners added to make it vaguely like yogurt: https://www.yoplait.com/products/original-single-serve-straw...
mjparrott
They exist but are a small minority of the shelf. You have to really look for them.
supportengineer
This begs the question - is it reasonable for the consumer to put in a little work - reading labels and doing research outside of the grocery store?
I find that you do the research once, and then you know what to buy next time.
nradov
Look? As in open your eyes? It's literally right on the front of the package in large letters. You can see exactly what you're getting without even squinting at the fine print on the back.
maxerickson
Ridiculous.
vector_spaces
> Every grocery store where I've shopped has yogurt with no added sugar. It's right there on the shelf, just look at the label.
Large parts of the US are designated as food deserts, where one's best option for groceries might be the convenience store attached to a gas station. Good luck finding plain yogurt with no sugar added there. Your specific experience is exactly that.
[1] https://ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-deta...
nradov
Food deserts do exist but appear to have no meaningful effect on eating habits.
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/food-deserts-not-blame-growi...
dragonwriter
While I don't live in a food desert where these kind of stores are the only option, I have, in fact, regularly found plain yogurt in gas-station convenience stores, the even smaller refrigerated-food sections in urban drug stores, etc.
Now, fresh produce, except—if you are very lucky—extremely expensive (for the quantity), relatively small packs of cut carrots and other things people might reasonably purchase as snacks, anything usable as a cooking fat excepted salted butter, and lots of other things, sure, you are going to be SOL, but plain yogurt (both the usually watery American kind and strained "Greek” yogurt) seems pretty common.
kulahan
Looking at your source, it seems as though food deserts exist almost exclusively when you're very far from civilization.
In which case you can just grow the food.
SirFatty
"...how hard it is to find healthy food options compared to the unhealthy ones."
Sure, if you limit your purchases to Dollar General and Casey's. If you spent time in an actual grocery store, you'd find that your comment isn't true.
Yizahi
The problem is that to a European citizen this is a bit unexpected. In Europe, in all countries, you can find roughly the same level of "safeness" of food across all tiers of stores. Go to a cheapest one and the most expensive one, and the yogurt, tomatoes or meat would be approximately the same quality and have the same nutritional components. The only difference would be that expensive store would additionally carry some imported fancy tomatoes or some fancy steak cuts. But those steak cuts would be subject to the same standards as a cheap chicken meat in the cheap store.
rolisz
Romanian here: the tomato quality varies by a lot. All stores have crappy "plastic" tasting tomatoes. It's not that easy to find really good tomatoes (in summer you can find them at local markets, in winter... Fancy imports I guess).
FirmwareBurner
>But those steak cuts would be subject to the same standards as a cheap chicken meat in the cheap store.
Speaking also as an European, not they would not. There's a pretty big difference in the quality of the meant across the board between shops and brands of meat and food in general.
Here in Austria there's been plenty of scandals covering the poor conditions of animals in meat factories (living in feces, infections with puss, etc) yet the meat cuts receive the AMA seal of approval.
Sure, it's (probably) technically safe to eat due to all the antibiotics they pump in those animals, just like in the US, but quality varies a lot.
null
vel0city
Its not just a "tier" of store, its a "genre" of store. Stores like Dollar General are not really grocers, they just happen to carry some food products. They typically do not carry any fresh foods. So its not a matter of their tomatoes are somehow worse quality, its that they do not sell tomatoes. Its not that their meats are worse quality, they do not sell fresh meat. They practically only sell pre-packaged goods. Think about the few isles of junk food and small packages of household products (soaps and what not) you might find at a gas station, and scale that up ~800m^2.
If its not something that is OK to sit on a shelf for a few months, you won't find it at a Dollar General.
When it comes to actual fresh foods (which can be found if you go to actual grocery stores), those are highly regulated. You'll find fancier varieties at fancier grocery stores, but in the end a yellow onion at Kroger is about the same as a yellow onion in Safeway or Publix or Albertsons or HEB or Whole Foods.
vector_spaces
In large swaths of the country, these "non-grocery stores" are a lifeline, as they are the only option. In others, you don't even have that -- gas station convenience stores might be that lifeline instead. [1]
I am familiar with what the grandparent is referring to, having spent a decade running purchasing teams in US grocery stores. Even in urban areas with many different food retail stores, a typical supermarket in the US is a fairly difficult place to shop for someone with specific food sensitivities. Hopefully folks here who live in the SF Bay Area appreciate that it's a total outlier in both the diversity of stores available and the assortment of products sold in a typical Bay Area supermarket
[1] https://ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-deta...
SoftTalker
For most US supermarkets, shop around the perimeter and avoid anything in any of the center aisles. While individual floor plans vary, that tends to route you to the fresh produce and meats and dairy and avoid most of the ultraprocessed packaged stuff.
nradov
The SF Bay Area is hardly an outlier. There may be more specialty grocery stores here, but the large supermarkets where most consumers buy most of their food are the same as anywhere else. If you compare a Safeway in Mountain View, CA to a Publix in Daytona Beach, FL or a Kroger in Toledo, OH there isn't much difference in the products available.
newfriend
This just doesn't align with reality; your chart is practically meaningless.
Yes, in rural areas you often need to drive further than 1 mile to get to a grocery store. That doesn't mean that normal food doesn't exist for these people.
FirmwareBurner
>If you spent time in an actual grocery store, you'd find that your comment isn't true.
Also as "an European" whatever that means, I only spent a couple of months in the US as a tourist, and had no issues finding healthy foods from leafy greens, to good meats in places like Wholefoods.
If he couldn't find it while actually living there, tells me he's not commenting in good faith.
thatfrenchguy
I mean, Whole Foods targets upper middle class folks, you’re far away from the average American experience
Der_Einzige
To be clear, "actual" grocery store for the purposes of finding reliably fresh and healthy food includes one of the following:
1. Upscale western grocery stores and markets, ideally located within the biggest and most affluent city possible. Pikes place market would be a great example of what I'm talking about for you seattle folks.
2. Asian grocery stores, like "H-mart"
3. Farmers markets, but these are hit and miss, especially in smaller communities
Most other grocery stores, including Costco, Trader Joes, etc are full of extremely unhealthy trash slop. It's still extremely hard to find reliable low sugar options nearly anywhere, including at health and "organic" oriented grocery stores.
America just sucks for foodies who don't have unlimited time to get through the slop.
dgfitz
> America just sucks for foodies who don't have unlimited time to get through the slop.
I think by definition, being a “foodie” means you have, and enjoy finding, the time to sort the wheat from the chaff. Nobody has unlimited time for anything.
“I want to be be a ‘foodie’ but really I just want to be judgy” is a weak argument.
garciasn
Depends on the grocery store. If you shop exclusively at Target, a company that caters primarily to those who ‘prepare’ as opposed to those who ‘cook’ you’ll find less healthy options than actual grocery stores.
SirFatty
Target (and Wal-Mart) are not grocery stores. Sure they have groceries, but a limited select selection compared to a proper store.
vel0city
That depends a lot on the Target. One location around me only has a very small produce section for their groceries with everything else pretty much being prepackaged products. Another location has quite a large produce section along with a deli, a butcher counter, and a bakery.
0xbadcafebee
The comment is still true regardless of the fact that Whole Foods exists. It is genuinely more difficult to find healthy food in the US than abroad.
(i'm ignoring the additional fact that the US has many more food deserts than abroad. even within rich neighborhoods with many expansive grocery stores, those stores have more unhealthy options and fewer healthy options than abroad, unless it's specifically a "health food store")
wenc
As a Canadian living in the US, I’d say your sentiment depends on where you live and what you’re willing to pay.
In the Seattle area there are overpriced grocery stores like PCC and Met Market that sell healthy food at a premium.
There is also Whole Foods.
Even normal grocery stores like Safeway and Kroger have a ton of healthy foods — you just have to read the label.
The one thing you have to know if that American grocery stores are giant — they carry way more SKUs than the average European grocery store. It’s on the shopper to find what they want. It’s usually there.
orochimaaru
Just get plain unsweetened full fat yogurt. Every store has that. Yeah - the sweetened/flavored variety are more but the basic unsweetened is also easily available.
Bread is a bit of a shit show. Stick to something like sourdough for 0 adde sugars.
Hormones are banned for meat and poultry. I’m not sure how antibiotics are treated. Fwiw - with vegetarian food you also run the risk of pesticide contamination.
Either way, my point is that there’s a lot of options but do your research before you hit the store and in general try to limit highly processed food
portaouflop
In my experience the store has 10000 different kinds of sweetened yoghurt and exactly one that is “real” yogurt - often doesn’t have full fat yogurt at all.
Completely impossible to get normal bread unless you go to some hipster store that charges an insane amount for it.
It’s just really really hard to get decent food in America, which is crazy because the land is so rich in resources and nature.
orochimaaru
Depends on where you shop. But I think even Walmart has organic options these days.
jjtheblunt
just as a datapoint: we learn to carefully (compulsively perhaps) read labels stateside, for all the reasons you mention.
i.e., these same revelations and frustrations are shared by a huge swath of people born in the States (probably Canada too), and it is indeed a pain in the neck being continually paranoid about what nutritional rubbish is included in ingredient lists.
jay_kyburz
Food labels in the US and Canada suck as well compared to the UK and Australia. How big is a serve, who's percent daily value? Those numbers just aren't useful.
Here in Australia we have a column for grams per 100g by weight. It makes it much easier to compare foods.
hvb2
Units in the US make comparisons hard... Same problem in recipes...
jjtheblunt
that sounds actually useful!
dkga
Exactly my impression. And on top of things I need to keep a strict gluten-free diet. It’s a horrible experience.
colechristensen
>I assume for people who eat meat there's the additional concern of antibiotics resistance due to the antibiotics given to livestock.
The concern isn't eating meat from an animal treated with antibiotics infecting you with resistant bacteria.
The concern is treating animals with antibiotics puts evolutionary pressure towards breeding resistant bacteria that spill into the ecosystem and eventually get back to us. But not through meat consumption, it effects everyone regardless of diet.
0xbadcafebee
Specifically: animal waste is sometimes used as fertilizer, and sometimes that waste isn't treated properly to eliminate pathogens. Sometimes you're eating antibiotic-resistant-waste-laden plants, and sometimes those plants are fed to animals that humans then eat. Same for aquatic plants/animals downstream of animal waste. Even drinking water can be contaminated.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria isn't the only harmful downstream effect of factory farms of course. Regular-old harmful bacteria are in the runoff, as well as super-high levels of nutrients that harm waterways, plants and animals. Algal blooms, oxygen dead zones, contaminated water table, etc.
All because we really like cheap pork, beef and chicken.
colechristensen
Not really no.
I'm not saying eating a bit of cow poop on your lettuce never gets anyone sick, but that's not the mechanism of concern.
One: poop is mostly bacteria, by mass. It isn't infected with ... it is. Some can be "pathogens" but that's what the last stage of digestion is, fermentation with mostly a wide array of bacteria.
The concern is these gut bacteria developing antibiotic resistance and bacterial infections in the animal developing resistance. Then infections are spread between animals and across species and the waste is reintroduced into the environment. Resistant bacteria in the environment share. Horizontal gene transfer between species of bacteria can lead to these resistance genes being popular and everywhere. It's not cow poop infecting you, its the genetics getting spread into the environment and eventually ending up in a human pathogen.
>animal waste is sometimes used as fertilizer
More or less all industrial farmed animal waste ends up as fertilizer. Also a major component of the kinds of soil we grow crops in is bacteria, much of which has been through the digestive system of an animal. Again I don't know what people think soil is. If you want "clean"(?) never been poop growth medium for your plants you have to go completely artificial. And manure isn't sterilized before it goes into fields, it's alive.
null
talkingtab
People in the US are so trained by the food industry, that they do not know what good food is. Yogurt for example. Here is an experiment you can do at home if you want to disbelieve my statement.
Step #1 Make good yogurt and eat it.
1. Go buy a quart of milk, full fat. 2. Buy some yogurt culture. Bulgarian preferred. 3. Follow the directions. You need to keep the temp at around 110F, warm water bath, heating pad, hot water bottles, put it in a cooler, whatever.
This is one of the best foods there is.
Step 2. Go to your grocery store or stores and try to find some yogurt that is as good.
You can repeat these steps for other foods. Coffee - roast your own. Cheese. Just go to a gourmet cheese store. Get something that does not come in a plastic bag.
Or go to Europe and try real croissants. Everyone in Paris can get real croissants almost anywhere every day. And not to mention real bread - again the plastic bag.
We are so used to what is available here that we have come believe it is "food" when really it is just adulterated to have a long shelf life. Sorry, but really just try it.
duped
I mean there are things you can reasonably do better than the grocery store but something things are unrealistic. Like "just go to a gourmet cheese store" is not something you can do in most of the country.
I live in one of the largest metro areas with quite a few Michelin star and recommended eateries, lovely food culture, and we love our dairy. I think there are two dedicated cheese mongers you can walk into in the entire area, neither are particularly accessible.
dfxm12
They're cheap, easy to find and easy to prepare.
With grocery prices going up, what little progress has been made might get reversed, unfortunately. Making America healthy again means making non-ultraprocessed groceries available to everyone & cheaper, and ensuring that working families have time to cook. Pressuring Coke to create a new product with sugar is not going to move the needle.
pchristensen
Don't forget non-perishable. If you're already having a hard time affording groceries, it really hurts to throw away wilted veggies or moldy fruit.
nradov
Canned and frozen vegetables are also non-perishable. While some extremely poor people lack a working freezer or storage space, most consumers can easily use these options.
kulahan
Absolutely nothing I've seen anywhere justifies the idea that access to food is the problem. In most cultures, you don't need cooking classes because the food is ingrained into their culture, and recipes are passed down. Americans have a much weaker link to their heritage. You might know a few dishes, but in my experience, absolutely nobody knows how to cook.
By cook, I don't mean "can add one box of prepared goods to another box of prepared goods with a can of prepared goods on the side", I mean buying meat, veggies, fruit, and grains and cooking a dish from home, mostly from scratch.
delichon
If you're having a hard time affording groceries, failing to plan ahead and instead throwing away food is a luxury you can't afford. (A blender and an affection for green smoothies is a good solution.) But that's still cheaper than paying for the health problems downstream of ultraprocessed food. Unfortunately my source for both claims is personal experience.
I'd like to have an app that estimates the cost of groceries, including the long term health effects of regular consumption, and interpreting early death as a cost rather than savings. For me I think ribeye would end up being cheaper than Doritos.
gruez
>I'd like to have an app that estimates the cost of groceries, including the long term health effects of regular consumption, and interpreting early death as a cost rather than savings. For me I think ribeye would end up being cheaper than Doritos.
Someone who bothers to input everything they eat into an app (basically calorie counting) probably already has enough intuitive sense of what's "healthy" that they don't need an app that they should eat beef rather than doritos.
lotsofpulp
>But that's still cheaper than paying for the health problems downstream of ultraprocessed food.
It is unrealistic to expect the vast majority of humans to prioritize the long term in every single decision they make, especially if they have a dim view of the long term.
It is logical to want to enjoy life in the present, even if it will hurt in the long term, if you are being brought down by other aspects, such as stress about income volatility and belief in low probabilities of upward movement, etc.
dfxm12
Perhaps this is a function of "easy to find". Food deserts are a problem with regards to a lot of families only having little access to fresh foods. When you have to drive 30 min to the IGA, maybe you overbuy compared driving the 5 min to shop at the dollar general. The consolidation of big supermarket chains contributes to the creation of food deserts.
mjparrott
Many times the ultra processed crap is more expensive. Don't forget "convenient to buy" in addition to "convenient to cook". For example, a cliff bar bought from a corner store could be $3, and is basically a candy bar. A company I like is called Farmer's Fridge, and they basically have vending machines in convenient places with fresh made healthy foods like salads.
nebula8804
I love what Farmers Fridge is doing, I wish their prices were cheaper but Im glad that they exist and I hope they continue to grow.
smileysteve
Now if Coke was pressured to add 1g of fiber to products, we could be talking.
Der_Einzige
You can make America far more healthy by doing the following:
1. Mandating lower amounts of sugar, and significantly switching to zero calorie non glycemic sweeteners.
2. Removing plastic packaging and eliminating sources of microplastics and other endocrine disruption contamination of our food supply/
3. Banning most of the stuff that the European food agencies ban
4. Getting GLP-1's in the hands of every overweight person in America.
It's that easy, but "Make America Healthy Again" was made by a guy who had a worm eat his brain.
kulahan
I couldn't possibly disagree with your last point harder. What's with people and blindly trusting that the pharma companies found a holy grail medicine and didn't rush it to market well before the necessary research is in?
Even more than that, dosing hundreds of millions of Americans for life is one insanely expensive and ridiculous solution.
Side note, is there good research on the effects of microplastics on the body? I'm holding out adding that to my plate of concerns until this is the case, and last I heard we were pretty in-the-dark on the topic.
colingauvin
If you're worried about the possible, unknown side effects of GLP1s, check out the inevitable, well-known side effects of being morbidly overweight.
ruralfam
Not sure this is a good post, but might be so taking the risk. I am snacking right now on some UPF - my 10% vice. However, my 90% is pretty good. One NOT-UPF staple is steel cut oats that are slow cooked. Very easy, healthy and likely as NOT-UPF as you can get. Recipie: 3 cups steel cut oats (I use Bob's Red Mill Organic), 1+ Qt water, 1 Qt Skim Milk, 1+ Teaspon salt. Combine everything into a suitable pot. Slow cook at 150F for six hours. Stir occasionally. Explore ways to eat. E.g. warm in microwave with some blueberries, and a bit of brown sugar. Stores in the Fridge for a long time. HTH, NSC (+ means "a bit more than")
Havoc
Currently trying to track down a something I'm sensitive/allergic to and this is where I started - a wide but pretty bland whole foods diet.
Theory being that the issue is one of the billion colourants/flavourants/preservatives & cooking from scratch cuts most of them.
Too early to confidently tell (4 days in)...but the vibes sure feel promising
mjparrott
A really nice brand of healthy foods that are trustworthy and less processed is Primal Kitchen. I have zero affiliation with them, just is a brand I trust. Its so hard to shop for things that are healthy. For example, their Ketchup is just Tomato, Vinegar, Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, and Spices. No sweetener substitutes needed. https://www.primalkitchen.com/products/organic-unsweetened-k...
ArchOversight
benjaminclauss
Is it just me or is this super unreadable?
fusslo
yeah, I think it's one of those annoyingly over stylized articles that animates/loads as you scroll and Archive doesn't preserve the javascript (or whatever) to make it look & work right
hypertexthero
In case it’s useful, some healthy recipes by two people who’ve traveled around the world in a small boat:
Herring
For convenience, my rice cooker has been a godsend. I'm basically making homemade chipotle bowls every day.
supportengineer
You can make quinoa in a rice cooker also, turns out great.
bwv848
Funny I recently ditched my rice cooker and got a clay pot, in response to the rising food price at restaurants. While I am chasing a perfect clay pot rice with golden crispy but not greasy and burnt bottom and fluffy center, I found out cooking rice on gas is not as complicated as we imagine. Soak the rice for a while, cook on high heat till water is evaporated on the top, dial down to low flame, put on toppings, closed the lid simmer for a while, then let the residual heat of the clay pot to finish the job. The result is perfectly serviceable, of course extra care would elevate the dish a lot. Also you can use a bowl and steam the rice, with toppings if you like.
johnrob
If you don’t have one, try an Instant Pot which can pressure cook (in addition to rice cooker features). Dry beans can be ready to eat in an hour.
dswalter
Instant Pot Garbanzo beans/chickpeas with a tiny bit of salt are a favorite in my home. Creamy, savory, and delicious! Cannellini beans are also lovely.
lapetitejort
Similarly, get a sous vide setup with vacuum sealer. Buy chicken breast and dump it into a bag with a bunch of seasoning. Because sous vide heats it just above bug-killing temperature and will not burn the meat, you can leave it in for an indeterminate amount of time (on the scale of hours, not days) and take it out when desired.
SoftTalker
I like the idea but cooking in plastic bags is also somewhat of a concern for me.
lokar
Fancy (Asian) rice cookers use pressure
Esophagus4
I do homemade Cava bowls in it! Less salt, fewer pesticides, and fewer preservatives than the actual thing.
Lately I’ve been using more microwave rice just because it’s less cooking and cleanup, but still good overall.
linhns
Take care of it, don’t scratch it too much while cleaning otherwise the non-stick can leak out. Then it becomes a serious health issue.
enraged_camel
Rice cooker is great. I also use my Instant Pot a ton. Incredibly convenient and an invaluable time saver.
apparent
We use our IP to make yogurt (discussed in depth above). Easy to make and when strained, better than any store bought Greek yogurt.
Also decent for sous vide. I use a big glass jar instead of plastic bags, which are a health concern.
fnordpiglet
Due to the paywall I couldn’t get beyond the first image claiming convenience. I’ve no idea what the rest says so I’ll speak disconnected from the content and just to the concept.
People assume ultra processed came about due to demand side factors but it’s actually more about supply side supply chain management and the scale in size of the US. By processing the food into more constructed ingredients they always enter a state where they’re easy to package and distribute across vast distances in that state. They can then be combined into food that is palatable through additives. Indeed the process disrupts the natural structure and content of the food - but that was necessary to feed everyone at a reasonable price a variety of foods grown across a vast distance at a reasonable price.
Obviously this led to demand because the food was more complete and varied than was generally available at the fresh grocer. Convenience was a side effect as well that was well capitalized.
These arguments actually hold until pretty recently. Even in my lifetime grocery stores growing up were pretty stark affairs with a few expensive fresh products that you splurged on for a special dinner like thanksgiving. Daily food was basically processed rations with a fancy box. It’s only in my adulthood, and the lifetime of the millennials, that there was really much optionality as supply chains globally and fresh food distribution with widely available refrigerated trucking with ethylene gas storage proliferated, free trade opened, etc.
Before all this, in my parents generation, the other option for ultra processed foods was malnutrition and wide spread rickets. It was when we tried to draft for WWII and the majority of rural young men were so malnourished as to be unfit for war that things really changed.
To sit today and compare the options of fresh food available and wonder how we got here ignores the reality of how we got here. But we are here so indeed, eat fresh and be happy we have free trade!
Milpotel
That's a bit too naive considering how bad food became during the last decade. Formerly perfectly fine products now have artificial ingredients to increase profits.
Simulacra
Relevant
"The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food"
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinar...
This all has very big "uncured bacon" energy to me (if you didn't already know: there's no such thing; vendors of uncured bacon performatively drive the same chemical nitrite reaction using vegetable extracts). For example: yogurt becomes a UPF simply by dint of adding carrageenan, which is on the order of calling dashi a UPF because of the kombu.
It's not that there isn't a very legitimate issue underneath all this: packaged, hyperpalatable, low-nutritional-density low-satiety foods are probably a major driver of health problems. It's just that "UPF" isn't the right metric for isolating those foods, and with the wrong metrics you end up in a similar place as California does with the Prop 65 warnings.
We went through a similar thing with "pink slime" (transglutaminase preservation techniques).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-a9VDIbZCU