How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods • Hacker News Board

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#61

Post by SoftTalker » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 4:51 PM UTC

lapetitejort wrote: post #42

johnrob wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don’t have one, try an Instant Pot which can pressure cook (in addition to rice cooker features). Dry beans can be ready to eat in an hour.

Similarly, get a sous vide setup with vacuum sealer. Buy chicken breast and dump it into a bag with a bunch of seasoning. Because sous vide heats it just above bug-killing temperature and will not burn the meat, you can leave it in for an indeterminate amount of time (on the scale of hours, not days) and take it out when desired.

I like the idea but cooking in plastic bags is also somewhat of a concern for me.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#62

Post by vel0city » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 5:00 PM UTC

garciasn wrote: post #43

vel0city wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends a lot on the Target. One location around me only has a very small produce section for their groceries with everything else pretty much being prepackaged products. Another location has quite a large produce section along with a deli, a butcher counter, and a bakery.

I was speaking about SuperTargets, not standard Targets. And I’m not sure why folks are downvoting this; objectively, Target has limited and terrible selection compared to standalone grocers.

In my travels I've found even the size and quality of the produce sections of SuperTargets can be quite variable.

But yes, I do agree their range of choices for fresh food products is usually more limited compared to good, actual grocers. But that applies to their packaged goods as well, they often don't have as many choices of lots of things. I might find almost a dozen brands of pasta at an actual grocer but only have three or four brands at Target. To me it seems the ratio is about the same, its just the scale is different.

And to be honest, its the same story for practically all the stuff at Target. They don't have the widest supply of craft supplies compared to craft stores like Michael's and Hobby Lobby. They don't have the widest selection of bicycles compared to the bike store. They don't have nearly as many toys as what Toys R Us did. The book section is smaller than a Barnes & Noble. What else is new.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#63

Post by gruez » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 5:01 PM UTC

Simulacra wrote: post #60

Insanity wrote: post #2

As a European who moved to Canada and spends a fair amount of time in the States, one thing that really surprised me is how hard it is to find healthy food options compared to the unhealthy ones. Food was a bit of a concern before moving, but I didn't know just how frustrating it would be. Even something as simple as Yogurt is usually insanely sweet / sugary compared to European variants. Ingredients that are banned…

My conspiracy theory is at healthier foods are deliberately made more expensive, to push people into the cheaper ultra processed foods. It's kind of like cigarettes, push them into the more addictive, cheaper products to hook them.

No need to invoke conspiracies here when the ultraprocessing makes food last longer, more delicious, and allows manufacturers to skimp on more expensive ingredients (eg. "ice cream" that use thickeners rather than actual cream).

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#64

Post by gruez » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 5:04 PM UTC

delichon wrote: post #23

pchristensen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget non-perishable. If you're already having a hard time affording groceries, it really hurts to throw away wilted veggies or moldy fruit.

If you're having a hard time affording groceries, failing to plan ahead and instead throwing away food is a luxury you can't afford. (A blender and an affection for green smoothies is a good solution.) But that's still cheaper than paying for the health problems downstream of ultraprocessed food. Unfortunately my source for both claims is personal experience. I'd like to have an app that estimates the cost of groceri…

>I'd like to have an app that estimates the cost of groceries, including the long term health effects of regular consumption, and interpreting early death as a cost rather than savings. For me I think ribeye would end up being cheaper than Doritos.

Someone who bothers to input everything they eat into an app (basically calorie counting) probably already has enough intuitive sense of what's "healthy" that they don't need an app that they should eat beef rather than doritos.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#65

Post by vector_spaces » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 5:07 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #55

vector_spaces wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In large swaths of the country, these "non-grocery stores" are a lifeline, as they are the only option. In others, you don't even have that -- gas station convenience stores might be that lifeline instead. [1] I am familiar with what the grandparent is referring to, having spent a decade running purchasing teams in US grocery stores. Even in urban areas with many different food retail stores, a typical supermarket in…

The SF Bay Area is hardly an outlier. There may be more specialty grocery stores here, but the large supermarkets where most consumers buy most of their food are the same as anywhere else. If you compare a Safeway in Mountain View, CA to a Publix in Daytona Beach, FL or a Kroger in Toledo, OH there isn't much difference in the products available.

I hope that you recognize that your casual-outsider evaluation of the assortments of these stores is deeply flawed and not based on actual data. If you think about it even just a little bit, you'll recognize that it wouldn't make sense for a supermarket in one of the highest median income cities in the country to have assortment parity with a chain targeting cost conscious shoppers. The devil here is in the long-tail, which is definitionally less visible to you as a shopper, and in fact may not exist at all for certain retailers -- especially those targeting cost-conscious shoppers.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#66

Post by vel0city » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 5:13 PM UTC

Yizahi wrote: post #38

SirFatty wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...how hard it is to find healthy food options compared to the unhealthy ones." Sure, if you limit your purchases to Dollar General and Casey's. If you spent time in an actual grocery store, you'd find that your comment isn't true.

The problem is that to a European citizen this is a bit unexpected. In Europe, in all countries, you can find roughly the same level of "safeness" of food across all tiers of stores. Go to a cheapest one and the most expensive one, and the yogurt, tomatoes or meat would be approximately the same quality and have the same nutritional components. The only difference would be that expensive store would additionally carr…

Its not just a "tier" of store, its a "genre" of store. Stores like Dollar General are not really grocers, they just happen to carry some food products. They typically do not carry any fresh foods. So its not a matter of their tomatoes are somehow worse quality, its that they do not sell tomatoes. Its not that their meats are worse quality, they do not sell fresh meat. They practically only sell pre-packaged goods. Think about the few isles of junk food and small packages of household products (soaps and what not) you might find at a gas station, and scale that up ~800m^2.

If its not something that is OK to sit on a shelf for a few months, you won't find it at a Dollar General.

When it comes to actual fresh foods (which can be found if you go to actual grocery stores), those are highly regulated. You'll find fancier varieties at fancier grocery stores, but in the end a yellow onion at Kroger is about the same as a yellow onion in Safeway or Publix or Albertsons or HEB or Whole Foods.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#67

Post by brazukadev » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 5:15 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #36

I just opened up www dot amazon dot com and filled my cart with $50 worth of food that will be delivered to my door in a few hours: rice, potatoes, farro, beans, peppers, ginger, onions, garlic frozen peas, frozen carrots, plain low-fat yogurt, chicken thighs, and good bread. I don't want to hear anyone telling me that American capitalism has robbed us of real food. If anything, American capitalism has heaped upon us…

> I don't want to hear anyone telling me that American capitalism has robbed us of real food

they didn't rob it, they hid it and put zillions of billboards selling their ultra-proccessed ultra-palatable anything with a huge profit margin.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#68

Post by gruez » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 5:15 PM UTC

at-fates-hands wrote: post #25

Insanity wrote: post #2

As a European who moved to Canada and spends a fair amount of time in the States, one thing that really surprised me is how hard it is to find healthy food options compared to the unhealthy ones. Food was a bit of a concern before moving, but I didn't know just how frustrating it would be. Even something as simple as Yogurt is usually insanely sweet / sugary compared to European variants. Ingredients that are banned…

My weekly routine now consists of going to local farmer's market and buying stuff from farms I trust. Going to local butchers to get grass fed, naturally raised meats. Then off to the local grocery store to get whatever else I need that week for the stuff I prepare at home. If you want to eat healthy, you certainly can, but takes quite a bit of effort and some additional cost. Processed and ultraprocessed food has ju…

>My weekly routine now consists of going to local farmer's market and buying stuff from farms I trust. Going to local butchers to get grass fed, naturally raised meats. Then off to the local grocery store to get whatever else I need that week for the stuff I prepare at home.

>If you want to eat healthy, you certainly can, but takes quite a bit of effort and some additional cost.

It does, but you really don't need to go to farmers markets and buy grass fed beef from a dedicated butcher to "eat healthy". You can get 95-100% of the benefits of your routine by going to a regular supermarket and buying non-ultraprocessed foods.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#69

Post by dgfitz » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 5:17 PM UTC

Der_Einzige wrote: post #53

dgfitz wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> America just sucks for foodies who don't have unlimited time to get through the slop. I think by definition, being a “foodie” means you have, and enjoy finding, the time to sort the wheat from the chaff. Nobody has unlimited time for anything. “I want to be be a ‘foodie’ but really I just want to be judgy” is a weak argument.

In America, google rating scores are straight up astroturfed to the point where the total number of ratings is far more important than their score. When I travel to Japan, for example, I interpret a bad google maps review score for a location as a GOOD thing, because the average white tourists palette is incompatible with the local cuisine. I can walk to basically any random place, anywhere in Japan, or France, or Si…

As long as you realize this is opinion, sure thing.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#70

Post by lotsofpulp » Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 5:17 PM UTC

delichon wrote: post #23

pchristensen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget non-perishable. If you're already having a hard time affording groceries, it really hurts to throw away wilted veggies or moldy fruit.

If you're having a hard time affording groceries, failing to plan ahead and instead throwing away food is a luxury you can't afford. (A blender and an affection for green smoothies is a good solution.) But that's still cheaper than paying for the health problems downstream of ultraprocessed food. Unfortunately my source for both claims is personal experience. I'd like to have an app that estimates the cost of groceri…

>But that's still cheaper than paying for the health problems downstream of ultraprocessed food.

It is unrealistic to expect the vast majority of humans to prioritize the long term in every single decision they make, especially if they have a dim view of the long term.

It is logical to want to enjoy life in the present, even if it will hurt in the long term, if you are being brought down by other aspects, such as stress about income volatility and belief in low probabilities of upward movement, etc.