Why Are Americans So Unhealthy? Part I: Is Ultra-Processed Food Killing Us?

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News Commentary, News

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Americans die younger and faster than the residents of almost every other rich country. Why? There's gun violence, drug overdoses, and car crashes. Young people are much more likely to die from these accidents than those in other countries. Just as importantly, Americans are more likely to die from chronic illness, especially heart disease and metabolic diseases. We eat more and worse food. We're arguably exposed to more environmental toxins. We move around less, too. Kevin Klatt, a research scientist at UC Berkeley and a nutritionist, joins us in the first episode of our new miniseries on health. We take on the hottest topic in the diet world today: ultra-processed foods. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Kevin Klatt Producer: Devon Baroldi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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1:11.6	Today, the first in a new little mini-series. Why are Americans so unhealthy?
1:18.4	Let's begin with the facts. Americans die younger and faster than the residents of just about
1:24.0	every rich country. This statistic is indisputable.
1:27.9	It's as straightforward as the stat that our population is larger than Portugal.
1:32.7	A 30-year-old in America is four times more likely to die in the next 12 months
1:36.9	than a similarly aged person in Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK, Japan.
1:46.0	So why do Americans die young?
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