We’re Stuffing Our Faces with Food That’s Not Food

New studies confirm serious health risks associated with the addictive, engineered “food” that predominates in Western diets

Let’s start by putting your palate at ease: You don’t have to eat perfectly to enjoy good health. But you do have to consume thoughtfully. Problem is, there’s a huge gulf between eating well and the junk that predominates in grocery stores and is heavily marketed (sometimes as “healthy”) by big food manufacturers.

Let’s set the table before serving up a trio of new studies to chew on:

Ultra-processed food (UPF), which now makes up more than half of the calories consumed in American diets and in a growing number of other Western countries, is engineered to be addictive. Manufacturers load UPF up with sugar, salt, unhealthy saturated fats, even petroleum products, cancer-causing dyes and other non-food additives to make their products not only irresistible but bereft of the nutrition your body and mind require to function properly.

“These highly processed foods are designed to make you want more and more and more and override your satiety signals,” Ashley Gearhardt, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, told me. “The cues for them are everywhere and the food environment is set up to constantly tempt you.”

We’re talking not just about hot dogs, pizza and chips, but also sweetened drinks…