Yep, we are still eating like crap!

Fox's Tonya J Powers reports on the CDC's report that Americans get over half of their calories from ultra-processed foods

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Seven thirteen. Let's jump over to the Legacy Retirement Group
dot Com phone line speak with Fox News Tany j
Powers new CDC report. Tanya says that we as Americans
are getting more than half of our calories from ultra
processed foods. It's not good. What's the story.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, you're right, that is what this new CDC report
is saying. And let me explain where this data comes from.
Every time I side a report or a study, I
always want to make sure people know where this information
comes from. The data was collected between August of twenty
twenty one and August of twenty twenty three, so there's
a two year period there where they looked at these

(00:38):
numbers and they found that when you break it down
by age group, these ultraprocessed foods are a large part
of our diet here in America. And what do we
mean by ultraprocessed foods? Things like ready to eat meals, burgers, pizza, sandwiches,
baked goods, sweetened drinks, instant noodle, Well, these kinds of things.

(01:02):
They found that for just adults, No, we're not talking
about kids people eighteen and under. We're talking about adults here,
ultraprocessed foods make up about fifty three percent of total
calories consumed. When you look at the kids number between
age one and eighteen, that number was nearly sixty two percent.
So what they're saying that they found in this two

(01:24):
year span was that sixty two percent or so of
the calories that kids consume were made up of these
ultraprocessed foods.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
It's remarkable because it's all the stuff that we like.
I mean, it's all the stuff that tastes good. It's
the cookies, the cakes, the crackers, the cereals, and all
the stuff that we you probably all have on our pantries.
You know, I would assume moderation is the key to
everything here. But and it's you know, we are we
are addicted to convenience. I would I would submit that
it's it's more about just being able to go to

(01:55):
the shelf and grabbing something quick and filling your belly
versus getting something healthy, nutritious.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
In part, yeah, convenience does play a role in this
this Also, they also have some information that broke it
down by income and what they found that low income
adults consume more ultra processed foods than people with higher incomes,
which is probably not surprising to a lot of people.
I mean, there are you know, food deserts. We've we've

(02:23):
heard of those for for years and years. Those are
a real thing where it's you know, access to fresh
food or healthier food or whatever is a problem in
some areas. It is it is harder to get to it,
you know, requires in a lot of cases, more money.
I mean, yeah, it's probably going to cost you a
lot more to buy fresh food, fresh food produced, you know, vegetables,

(02:45):
things like that than it is, you know, if you're
buying something that's you know, processed and you know, cheaper,
no doubt.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
I mean, it is expensive to eat healthy in short.
I mean you can go, you can fill your belly,
go to the drive through and spend six or seven
bucks time you and feel it's not necessarily good for
you and it's relatively cheap. Also, in the manufacturing of
these ultra processed foods, they do it these food big
food you know, big food companies. They want us hooked

(03:15):
on this, and they are able to make this food
so addictive because they have the perfect balance of salty, sweet, fatty,
where you know, you have it's that whole thing. You
have one and then you just can't stop eating. And
there's another one, and there's another one. There's another one.
So not only are they are we hooked on the
convenience factor, we're also hooked on the taste.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
It's I mean, yeah, i mean there's they put all
the they put all the good stuff in there, the sugar,
the salt, of things that really, you know, are man,
this is you know, any satisfying right now. It may
not be in you know, thirty minutes, but yeah, you're
right about the fact that it is. You know, they're
kind of tempting and we can kind of get addicted
to this stuff.