Americans Consume The Most Ultra-Processed Calories From This Unexpected Type Of Food

We all know that the modern American food system relies heavily on ultra-processed ingredients. But if you aren't careful, these processed foods can end up being a pretty significant part of your diet. And while thinking of ultra-processed foods probably has you envisioning items like big bags of Doritos chips and sleeves of Oreo cookies, new research has shown a surprising top source for ultra-processed calories in Americans' diets: sandwiches.

That's right, a 2025 study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) showed that it was not cookies, chips, or even soda that contributed the highest number of ultra-processed calories to American meals, but the standard lunchtime staple. When you stop to think about it, it makes a lot of sense. For one thing, burgers were included in this category, and we know how much Americans love their burgers. But, beyond that, many eat a sandwich for lunch most days, and a lot of sandwiches out there are actually made from ultra-processed foodstuffs.

While it can be tough to put a finger on exactly what "ultra-processed food" really means, the CDC defines it as "industrial formulations of processed foods that typically [contain] unnatural additives, such as colorings or emulsifiers." Under that definition, you can't help but look differently at those blocks of perfectly uniform lunch meat, the individually wrapped slices of cheese food, and the loaf of sandwich bread packed full of things like sodium stearoyl lactylate and distilled monoglycerides that go in your lunch box every day.

Nutrition science has a long history of changing its mind about various foods, with eggs being an oft-cited example. For decades, there was fear around the effects that eggs had on cardiovascular health. In the 2010s, of course, new data changed the overall guidelines around cholesterol, and eggs returned to the menu — though there is still a maximum number of eggs you should eat each week. But despite the come-and-go trends in the world of nutrition science, one thing has always been accepted as good for you: eating whole foods, especially fruits and vegetables. However, those whole foods have come to be a startlingly small portion of the average American diet.

According to the aforementioned CDC study, on average, around 55% of all calories in Americans' diets come from ultra-processed foods. For youths — those aged 1 to 18 years — that percentage skews upward to 61.9%. However, for those 19 and over, it rests at a still shocking 53%. Given the negative health outcomes associated with these foods, this is a major point of concern.

Ultra-processed foods tend to be, as the CDC states, "hyperpalatable, energy-dense, low in dietary fiber, and contain little or no whole foods, while having high amounts of salt, sweeteners, and unhealthy fats." Unfortunately, consumption of these foods is also closely associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and all-cause mortality. Research has even shown that eating ultra-processed foods can negatively affect cognitive behavior. Fortunately, awareness of the issue may be having an effect — the average number of dietary calories coming from ultra-processed foods actually declined in this study compared to a previous study conducted between 2013 and 2014.

Thankfully, it's pretty easy to make changes when it comes to your own diet. We won't get into replacing ultra-processed foods on the whole, but rather stick to your lunch. You're going to need to rebuild your sandwiches from the ground up, but it really doesn't take as much work as you might think. To start, we'll talk about the simplest part, the cheese. Cheese is considered a processed food, but if you stick to something simple, like slices of cheddar or provolone, you're doing alright. Just stay away from those plasticky American cheese food slices.

Bread is the next step, and it's pretty simple as well. While that pre-sliced loaf of Wonderbread is always tempting, if you want to get away from ultra-processed foods, you're going to want to swap it for proper bread made by a baker — the kind that contains only flour, water, salt, and yeast. Then, there's the center of your sandwich: the meat. This might be the most labor-intensive part of this process, but you can handle it. Instead of buying packages of pre-sliced pressed meat, roast yourself a chicken or a piece of beef or pork on Sunday. You can have it for dinner and slice up the leftovers for your lunch.

Don't forget the toppings, either. Lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber slices are all great ways to add even more whole foods and fiber to your diet. While making lunch this way is admittedly a bit more work on the front end, you will rest easy knowing that your lunches are taking down the numbers on the next CDC ultra-processed food study.