How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Transatlantic Food Quality & Everyday Experience

  • Multiple Europeans/Canadians report shock at US/Canadian grocery norms: far sweeter yogurt, more preservatives in bread, ultra‑pasteurized milk, and additives banned in Europe.
  • Others push back, saying virtually every US supermarket they use has plain yogurt, fresh produce, meat, beans, rice, etc.; the issue is that unhealthy variants dominate shelf space and marketing, not absolute availability.

Food Deserts, Store Types & Inequality

  • Some emphasize large “food desert” areas where only dollar stores or gas stations are accessible, making plain yogurt or fresh produce genuinely hard to get.
  • Opponents claim food deserts affect relatively few people and don’t fully explain national obesity; many rural residents simply drive farther or grow/hunt food.
  • Debate over whether Target/Walmart/Costco/Trader Joe’s count as “real” grocers and how assortments and prices differ between affluent vs poor neighborhoods.

Cooking Culture vs Access & Cost

  • One camp: access is mostly fine; the real loss is cooking skills and time—people “heat food” instead of cooking from basic ingredients.
  • Another camp: fresh, minimally processed food is often more expensive, more perishable, and requires planning many stressed, low‑income households struggle to manage; “being poor is expensive.”

Industrial Farming & Antibiotics

  • Clarification that the main risk from livestock antibiotics is environmental selection for resistant bacteria via manure and runoff, not eating treated meat.
  • Cited data suggest US farm antibiotic use per animal remains significantly higher than in Europe, prompting concern.

What Counts as ‘Ultra‑Processed’ (UPF)?

  • Broad agreement that hyperpalatable, low‑satiety packaged foods (chips, sugary snacks, many ready‑meals) are strongly linked to overeating, obesity and higher mortality.
  • Many criticize UPF definitions (e.g., NOVA) as crude: yogurt becomes “ultra‑processed” if it contains carrageenan; cured meats are flagged while some high‑sugar, high‑calorie “non‑UPF” items escape.
  • Fears that overbroad labeling will become background noise (Prop‑65 effect) rather than useful guidance.

Regulation vs Personal Responsibility

  • Individual‑choice view: supermarkets already stock plenty of “real food”; people simply prefer McDonald’s and junk snacks even when better options are similarly priced and available.
  • Systemic‑view response: pervasive nudges (formulation, advertising, placement, subsidies) make “choice” non‑neutral; proposals include:
    • Caps or taxes on added sugar, reformulation away from high‑calorie sweeteners.
    • Restrictions on certain additives, trans fats, possibly some plastics/microplastics.
    • Portion limits, density limits on fast‑food outlets, and stricter marketing rules.

Personal Workarounds

  • Many describe coping strategies: farmers’ markets plus ethnic grocers, buying basic ingredients and batch‑cooking, making yogurt or bread at home, using rice cookers/Instant Pots to make whole‑food meals practical.
  • Contributors note these solutions demand extra time, money, and knowledge—advantages not evenly distributed.