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This Age Group is Most Addicted to Unhealthy Food
They came of age amid amid the ultra-processed food boom, when food manufacturers began borrowing big tobaccos’ marketing playbook
Food engineered to be tasty, cheap and addictive is fueling a range of growing health problems in America and other Western countries. The lab-formulated junk — laden with salt, sugar, unhealthy fats, non-food flavorings and emulsifiers, and even petroleum-based preservatives — makes up the bulk of American calories consumed. These ultra-processed foods, as they are called, are marketed with seemingly healthy labels that focus on one supposed benefit without mentioning the poor overall nutritional value and harmful ingredients on lists so long only fine print can contain them.
The boxed, bagged and frozen culprits range from irresistible kid’s cereal to juice with no juice, from intensely flavored chips and 20-ingredient loaves of something that resembles bread, to ready-to-cook meals in a box.
Research has found these “foods” to be addictive. Multiple studies link them to a range of bad health outcomes, including cancer, obesity, heart attacks, diabetes and dementia and, no surprise then, a higher risk of early death from all causes.
