Food is complicated. We eat to stay alive, we eat for pleasure, we eat to stay healthy or get healthier. And increasingly, we eat because the food is telling us to eat more. Consider the gummy worm. Though eating replicas of underground invertebrates may not sound alluring, evidently it is: Americans spent more than 5 billion dollars on gummy worms in 2024. That led us to choose the chemical-laden confection as the cover “model” for this issue of Science News, which delves into the science behind big questions on food and health.
First stop, ultraprocessed foods. Gummy worms and other highly processed salty, fatty or sugary foods have come to dominate the American food supply, accounting for more than half of the calories that people consume at home. They are engineered to ping the brain’s reward system, inducing us to crave them, senior neuroscience writer Laura Sanders reports. Researchers in the fields of nutrition, obesity and addiction have built the case as to why these foods are so perilous, and efforts to protect people’s health are underway in other countries. Emulating them in the United States would require actions from the federal government such as stronger regulations or improved labeling. The Trump administration has flagged the health risks of ultraprocessed foods but so far has not made major changes.
We also examine the current craze for consuming more protein, with big scoops of protein being added to seemingly everything — even Starbucks coffee. But most Americans already eat more protein than they need, social sciences writer Sujata Gupta reports. What matters more for our bodies is the quality of the protein, researchers say, especially for older people. Getting that quality can be as simple as eating beans and rice together.
And no compendium of food trends would be complete without checking in on the keto diet. First devised in the 1920s to treat epilepsy, this super-high-fat regimen is fiercely defended by people who say it is healthier than eating more varied fare. And while starting a keto diet can help people lose weight, senior writer Meghan Rosen reports on a new study in mice that suggests a downside. Adhering to a keto diet long-term could increase the risk of metabolic problems, liver disease and cardiovascular disease.