The smell of beef patties sizzling on the grill paired with caramelized onions waft through the air. People rush to nearby counters to pick up their order. When asked about processed food, people’s minds typically go to a fast food restaurant. The reality however, is that from popular fast food chains to seemingly healthy dairy products, 55% to 70% of the American diet consists of mass produced food items from industrialized systems, according to the Center of Disease Control. This has not always been the case, yet in the past decades, the food market has become oversaturated with processed foods.
Masha Sardari, a registered dietitian and owner of nutrition counseling business Fearlessly Nourished, said food systems have become consolidated to maximize on returns with low-costing, processed products over traditional farming practices.
“Over the past century, the food system has experienced a significant shift from local and independent food production to large scale, industrialized systems,” Sardari said. “These shifts were largely driven by the need for shelf-stable, easy-to-transport and profitable food products.”
The American Industrial Revolution was a movement triggering notable changes in technology, according to a 2023 article on the history of American mass production by Robert J. Paradowski. These developments encouraged efficiency over quality, leading to mass production of consumer goods and an increase in workers looking for consistent, inexpensive meals. High-speed food service filled this gap, spurring the creation of modern fast food restaurants. In 2024 alone, the fast food restaurant sector in the United States generated $413.2 billion in revenue, roughly $1.1 billion a day according to Statista.
Similarly Annie Rubin, nutritionist and specialist in autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, said that American culture focuses on speed and convenience, prompting many Americans to eat their meals on the go.
“Because our society is so busy and stressed, we don’t take the time to cook real food,” Rubin said. “Food has become so convenient and cheap that cooking nutritious meals at home now competes with fast food value meals. With current inflation levels, Americans are more likely to choose the cheaper, heavily processed options rather than cook at home.”
Food serves as our fundamental source of sustenance, while also operating across multiple interconnected sectors, spanning from agriculture to restaurant chains. Consequently, food manufacturing companies shape food policies such as nutritional guidelines to protect their own interests.
“The food industry significantly influences food policy formation,” Rubin said. “Many of the [Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee members] represent different food industry players, and their interests influence the final dietary guidelines report.”
The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is a group of 20 nationally recognized scientists formed to create a nutritional framework for the nation while considering socioeconomic, status and race related factors. 95% of committee members however, were found to have ties to significant figures in the food and pharmaceutical industry. This raised questions about the authenticity of assigned food-based standards, according to the National Institute of Health.
Like how the regulation of food production alters the availability of different foods for Americans, Sardari said the promotion of junk foods through marketing normalizes unhealthy eating.
“Marketing plays a significant role [in the fast food industry] as well, with food-centered advertisements on screens, billboards, sides of buildings and transportation systems,” Sardari said. “Over time, this has normalized the regular consumption of convenience products. Culturally, cooking skills have declined across generations. Family dinners have become less frequent and quick options have become more integrated in daily life.”
Because advertisers are aware of consumers’ eating habits, they adhere to trends and push out products that consumers can easily incorporate into their daily lives. Clayton Ulm, a data analyst at the Stanford University Food Policy Lab, said that restaurants often observe peoples’ environments to use as a tool shaping dietary behaviors.
“You can limit someone’s choice by overwhelming their environment with … alluring strategies to get you to consume, like pumping the smell of your restaurant in the air so that you can smell that restaurant when you drive by,” Ulm said.
While U.S. culture continues to exacerbate issues in the nation’s daily meals, Rubin noted that many Americans cannot afford to opt for healthier foods due to increased inflation.
“Food has become increasingly expensive,” Rubin said. “When the choice is between buying a bag of lettuce or a full meal at a fast food restaurant, most people will choose the latter.”
Alongside food affordability is the challenge of lacking grocery stores in the area. Rising prices further restrict access to nutritious ingredients for people living in low-income geographic areas. In fact, food deserts — or low-income areas that lack immediate access to fresh and nutritious foods — are prevalent in America, with 18.8 million people living in them according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
“[Food deserts] lack access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” Sardari said. “Instead of grocery stores, food deserts are full of fast food restaurants and convenience stores. It’s incredibly challenging to eat a nutritious diet when living in these areas.”
Some students at Paly actively avoid processed foods. Amid America’s oversaturated food market, junior Paul Wang said he takes care of his health through a well-balanced diet and hopes for packaged food manufacturers to focus more on nutritious quality.
“I usually don’t do processed foods at all,” Wang said. “It’s getting really saturated in the food market right now. You go to Safeway, and half the [aisles] are basically filled up with processed foods, processed ingredients that are really unhealthy for you. America is becoming worse off as a country because we’re trying to prioritize profits in the food industry rather than care for our consumers.”
Lately, the food market prioritizes affordability, convenience and palatability, which leads to overreliance on harmful fast foods, according to a John Hopkins public health article. Prepackaged meals or artificial foods almost always consist of additives — substances added to increase shelf life or add color to the product. Rubin said additives can cause both mental and physical health issues in the human body.
“The biggest contributor to inflammation and chronic disease is the food we eat,” Rubin said. “If you ever spend time at the grocery store reading labels, you will see numerous chemicals, additives, added sugars and stabilizers in almost all of our food. Even food you consider ‘healthy’ usually has added ingredients. All of these additives can be really inflammatory.”
Negative impacts of ultra-processed products similar to these can be seen through the nutrient imbalances it causes.
“When the majority of the dietary pattern is composed of highly processed foods, we see shifts in fullness, digestion and blood glucose response,” Sardari said. “It demonstrates that our bodies interact with them in a different way than other foods. We also tend to see nutrient gaps, specifically insufficient intakes of magnesium, potassium, iron and omega-3 fatty acids.”
New developments in food policies are slowly but surely changing America’s food market for the better, according to Ulm. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is financial aid designed to increase food accessibility for low-income communities. As the largest anti-hunger program in America, SNAP helped over 41 million people during a month in 2022 according to Feeding America. Recently, they implemented additional restrictions on ultra-processed foods in an effort to promote health and a more nutritious die
“If you limit what you can purchase off of SNAP, for example not including sodas and candy and so on, people will overall buy less unhealthy foods and more healthy options,” Ulm said. “To increase access to healthy options, there are SNAP incentive programs that are something like for every dollar you buy vegetables on SNAP, you get a quarter back.”
Though these new policies have not seen an immediate effect on the transformation of American diets, there has been a clear increase in attempts to change the food and health crisis, according to the National Institute of Health. In the past 20 years, community-based efforts to make food related policies focus on healthier eating have almost tripled. Ulm said that these incentives may have been contributing to making a change in obesity rates for the past few years.
“We have been seeing lower rates of obesity in the last year,” Ulm said. “That means that Americans are consuming less ultra-processed foods. If current trends continue, that’s fantastic.”
Mass efforts from large organizations such as SNAP have been altering how the U.S. approaches food in recent years, according to Rubin. In order to make greater strides in improving the food industry, she said people should start paying more attention to food policies and its impact on the public’s health.
“Policy can be impactful if it is created without food industry input,” Rubin said. “I would love to see the next Dietary Guidelines committee exclude members with conflicts of interest from the food industry. Americans don’t eat well because they lack the knowledge of how to eat healthily.”
Reformation of food policies are essential but cannot promise a transformation in eating habits. Sardari said that prioritizing more diversity in crops on shelves would also make wholesome subsidies much more affordable.
“I would shift how agricultural subsidies are distributed,” Sardari said. “The current system emphasizes commodity crops, which leads to decreased food diversity and limits access to nutrient dense options. If these subsidies were redirected towards fruits, vegetables, legumes and diversified agriculture, it would generate significant downstream effects.”
Although subsidies in the United States are very beneficial to low income areas, most commodity crops are focused on producibility over nutritional value, according to an article by the American Action Forum. Historically, subsidies have focused on the production of the “Big Five”: corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and rice due to affordability. Specialty crops, on the other hand, are minimally produced due to its expense. Because of these circumstances, subsidies tend to have a higher percentage of unwholesome crops.
“Less processed options would decrease in cost, farmers would have more incentives to grow a variety of crops, and the American public would have improved access to fresh foods,” Sardari said. “Such a shift would change the food landscape and make it easier for consumers to choose foods of higher nutritional quality.”
Guidance on how to maximize the use of fresh produce is also important to what people are eating at home. In Rubin’s eyes, America should focus not only on availability of ingredients, but how those ingredients are used in meals.
“Americans need cooking skills to use that produce effectively,” Rubin said. “It would be great for there to be a program that combined cooking classes with access to subsidized produce.”
Though focusing on the diversity of crops is essential to what goes on shelves, access alone cannot guarantee what ends up on peoples’ plates. This raises the question: does affordability truly increase the purchase of healthy produce? In 2024, a 10% drop in the price of wholesome products increased the purchases by 12%, according to a 2024 article by Peijue Huangfu on the impact of financial incentives on consumers. Sardari says that pairing factors like affordability with educational initiatives helps turn these purchasing practices into long term habits.
“We can talk about nutrition in more neutral terms by discussing broader food systems and general health promoting behaviors rather than blaming individuals,” Sardari said. “When educating individuals, we can focus on how specific foods interact with our physiology, rather than their connection to body size or appearance.”
In order to do this, Rubin suggests developing habits that help consumers become more aware of what is in their food.
“One small, realistic dietary change people can make is to start reading food and nutrition labels; understand what your food contains and how nutritious it is,” Rubin said. “For example, if you had a choice between milk or soda, milk would be the more nutrient dense choice because it contains more nutrients, vitamins and minerals than soda.”
Although realistic measures are essential to progress, having a vision of the ideal scenario can encourage people to set a goal and work towards it. Sardari explains what practical and reliable food culture could look like.
“In a sustainable food system, … we would bring a slowness to food, taking the time to cook and sit down to eat, including the company of others at mealtime and considering where food comes from and how it is prepared.” Sardari said. “This way of approaching food would help restore a more flexible and positive relationship with it, while also bringing back the sense of community and connection that supports healthy and sustainable eating patterns.”
Eating is not simply a necessity, but an experience. Ultimately, an ideal food culture is not defined solely by nutritious produce, but rather integrating factors such as education for a long term effect. Although dietary changes like this are a step in the correct direction, they are not enough to fully change attitudes toward eating habits, Sadari said. In her view, a healthy relationship with food relies not only on the content of a meal but also how people interact with it.
