If you want to know just how far the American diet has drifted from sanity, look no further than the latest CDC report: over half of our daily calories now come from ultra-processed foods. That’s not a fringe problem—it’s a national crisis. According to the CDC, between 2021 and 2023, American adults consumed 53% of their calories from ultra-processed foods. Even worse, our kids—our future—are consuming nearly 62% of their daily intake from these factory-made, nutrition-void products.
This isn’t just about waistlines. It’s about health, national security, and cultural decay. As Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. bluntly put it earlier this year, “We are poisoning ourselves and it’s coming principally from these ultra-processed foods.”
Let’s be clear: ultra-processed foods aren’t just your occasional bag of chips or fast-food burger. They’re everywhere—loaded with artificial sweeteners, refined grains, industrial oils, and chemical preservatives. They’re engineered to be addictive and cheap, not nourishing. The CDC describes them as “hyperpalatable, energy-dense, low in dietary fiber, and contain[ing] little or no whole foods, while having high amounts of salt, sweeteners, and unhealthy fats.” Translation: they’re food-like products that fill you up but starve your body of what it actually needs.
This is no accident. Big Food companies have spent decades lobbying Washington, flooding grocery stores with cheap, processed junk, and convincing Americans that convenience is more important than health. And under years of bloated government bureaucracy, the FDA and USDA have been asleep at the wheel—or worse, complicit.
Now, under the leadership of President Trump and a revitalized conservative administration, it’s time to clean house. The FDA and USDA are finally asking the right questions—how to define “ultra-processed” foods more precisely and how to roll back the decades-long dominance of junk food in our national diet. But we need to go further.
First, we must recognize that this isn’t just a health issue. It’s a cultural one. A nation that can’t feed its children real food is a nation in decline. Our ancestors built this country on hard work, strong families, and self-reliance. They didn’t live off frozen burritos and sugary soda. They cooked from scratch, passed down recipes, and sat around the dinner table. Today, too many families are eating out of drive-thru bags, too exhausted or too misled to know better.
Second, we must empower parents—not bureaucrats—to take control of their families’ nutrition. That means transparency in food labeling, honest science in dietary guidelines, and rejecting the condescending elitism of the food and health establishment. It’s no coincidence that low-income Americans consume more ultra-processed food than anyone else. For decades, they’ve been told that cooking healthy is “too hard” or “too expensive.” That’s a lie. With the right knowledge and a little effort, families can reject the junk and reclaim their health.
Third, we need to renew our commitment to American agriculture and real food. That means supporting local farmers, reducing regulations that crush small producers, and breaking the stranglehold of multinational food corporations that prioritize profit margins over public health.
The good news? There’s a growing awareness. The CDC report notes that consumption of ultra-processed foods has dipped slightly over the past decade. Among adults, it dropped from 56% in 2013–2014 to 53% in 2021–2023. For kids, it dropped from nearly 66% in 2017–2018 to 62% in the same period. That’s progress, but not nearly enough.
If we want to restore the health of this nation, we have to start with what’s on our plates. It’s time to stop feeding our families like we’re feeding livestock and start acting like the proud, resilient, and capable Americans we are. This isn’t about trendy diets or government mandates. It’s about responsibility, tradition, and taking back control—from the corporations, from the bureaucrats, and from the culture that tells us our children’s future is less important than corporate convenience.
Eat like Americans. Live like Americans. Think like Americans. That’s how we win.
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Author: rachel
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