What is healthy?

What are we teaching our children it looks like?

Nearly two-thirds of the calories consumed by American children come from ultra-processed foods.

It is time we understand how we got here.

Understand Real Food. Question What Became Normal. Change What We Pass Down.

Start the conversationSupport Vowels
Four siblings, from a baby to an older child, sitting together on the floor
A toddler smiling in a living room
The early years, when food first becomes normal.
A teacher and elementary students looking at fruit, carrots, and a sandwich
School years, when children learn what a meal looks like.
Two teenagers cooking eggs and greens in a home kitchen
Older kids, making the meal themselves.

64.8%

of calories consumed by children ages 6–11 come from ultra-processed foods.

What are our children actually eating?

Ages 1–556.1%
Ages 6–1164.8%
Ages 12–1863.0%
Ages 19–3954.4%
Ages 40–5952.6%
Ages 60+51.7%

0% to 80%

What this tells us. Children ages 6–11 have the highest share. The youngest school years are when ultra-processed foods take up the most of the plate.Source · August 2021–August 2023 · U.S. ages 1 and older, Nova classification, day-1 dietary recall · CDC/NCHS Data Brief No. 536
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Is this getting better?

Change is possible. Ultra-processed food consumption among young people has declined from its recent peak. It still represents nearly two-thirds of calories.

02040608063.8%2013–1463.5%2015–1665.6%2017–1861.9%2021–23

Percent of calories, youth ages 1–18. Axis runs from 0 to 80 so the level stays visible.

What this tells us. Youth calories from ultra-processed foods were 63.8% in 2013–14, 63.5% in 2015–16, 65.6% in 2017–18, and 61.9% in August 2021–August 2023. The drop from the peak is real. The level is still high.Source · 2013–2014 through August 2021–August 2023 · U.S. youth ages 1–18 · CDC/NCHS Data Brief No. 536, Figure 5

The question that started this

What Is Healthy?

Most of us are born healthy.

Then something happens.

  • Food
  • Family
  • Marketing
  • Culture
  • Environment
  • Convenience
  • Economics
  • Habits
  • Access
  • Information

So what happened?

Explore the question

How did we get here?

Something changed

1960 → today

13.4% → about 40%

Obesity did not become normal overnight.

In the early 1960s, roughly 1 in 7 American adults ages 20–74 had obesity. Over the generations that followed, the prevalence rose.

So what changed?

  • Food
  • Portion sizes
  • Marketing
  • Convenience
  • Physical activity
  • Work
  • Transportation
  • Screen time
  • Sleep
  • Economics
  • The food environment

Or many of these things changing together.

Adults, ages 20–74

0102030405013.4%1960–6215.0%1976–8023.2%1988–9430.9%1999–0040.8%2021–23

Age-adjusted obesity prevalence. Axis runs from 0 to 50.

What this tells us. The comparable series is 13.4% in 1960–62, 15.0% in 1976–80, 23.2% in 1988–94, 30.9% in 1999–2000, and 40.8% in August 2021–August 2023. The often-cited 40.3% is adults age 20 and older in the same survey. The age windows are not identical, so the line stays on ages 20–74.Source · 1960–1962 through August 2021–August 2023 · U.S. adults ages 20–74, measured height and weight, BMI at or above 30 · NCHS Health E-Stat 111, Table 1, ages 20–74

What happened to children

1963–65

4.2%

About 1 in 24 children ages 6–11.

2017–18

20.3%

About 1 in 5. Roughly five times the 1960s figure.

What this tells us. Obesity in this age group was 4.2% in 1963–65 and 20.3% in 2017–18. Adolescents rose too: 4.6% at ages 12–17 in 1966–1970, and 21.2% at ages 12–19 in 2017–18. Those adolescent windows are not the same ages. The August 2021–August 2023 estimate for ages 6–11 is 22.1%.Source · 1963–1965 and 2017–2018 · U.S. children ages 6–11, BMI at or above the 95th percentile of the 2000 CDC growth charts · NCHS, obesity among children ages 6–11

Obesity is not the whole story

New cases of type 2 diabetes among young people doubled. CDC summarizes the SEARCH study as 9 new cases per 100,000 per year in 2002 and 18 per 100,000 per year in 2018. The underlying count for type 2 is youth ages 10–19: 9.0 rising to 17.9.

2002

9

new youth type 2 cases per 100,000 per year

2018

18

per 100,000 per year

Change

2×

Diseases we associate with adulthood are appearing during childhood.

Type 1 and type 2 are different. Over the same years, new type 1 cases rose from about 20 to 22 per 100,000 per year. CDC says no one currently knows how to prevent type 1. Type 2 can often be prevented or delayed with changes in weight, food, and physical activity.

What this tells us. The doubling is type 2 incidence, from 9.0 to 17.9 per 100,000 per year, which CDC rounds to 9 and 18. It is not a chart of every chronic disease, and it is not the number of children who currently have diabetes.Source · 2002–2018 · New cases per year. Type 2 figures are youth ages 10–19. Type 1 figures in the CDC summary are young people. · CDC summary of the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study

Prevention language: CDC, Diabetes basics.

A different trend

We got better at keeping people alive

  • Heart-disease death rates fell.
  • Stroke death rates fell.
  • Medicine improved.
  • Blood-pressure treatment improved.
  • Cholesterol treatment improved.
  • Smoking declined.

And yet obesity climbed.

From 1950 to 1996, CDC reported a 56% drop in the age-adjusted heart-disease death rate and a 70% drop in the stroke death rate. The same account credits less smoking, better detection and treatment of blood pressure and cholesterol, and other medical advances. That report also notes obesity was rising.

What this tells us. This is a fall in deaths, not a fall in obesity. Heart disease remains a leading cause of death. The useful question is what happens when treatment improves while obesity becomes more common.Source · Death rates compared from 1950 to 1996 · U.S. age-adjusted death rates · CDC MMWR, Decline in deaths from heart disease and stroke, 1900–1999

The generations

The 1960s and today are measured. The years between are what families were living through while the numbers moved.

  1. 1960s

    Obesity was still uncommon.

    13.4%

    Adults ages 20–74

    4.2%

    Children ages 6–11

    About 1 in 7 adults. About 1 in 24 children.

  2. 1970s

    The world around those meals was already changing. Convenience expanded. Television advertising grew. Dietary guidance was evolving. The food environment was changing with them.

  3. 1980s–1990s

    Then the climb got steep. This was the low‑fat era. Packaged convenience foods spread. In 1992, the Food Guide Pyramid became the picture of how to eat.

  4. 2000s

    What had been uncommon was becoming common. Adult obesity passed 30%. Childhood obesity was already far above the 1960s. Type 2 diabetes in young people was becoming a visible public-health problem.

  5. Today

    This is the food world children are growing up in.

    ~40%

    Adults with obesity

    1 in 5

    Children and adolescents

    Nearly 2 in 3 calories eaten by children ages 6–11 come from ultra-processed foods.

The middle decades describe public life alongside the rise. Ages 2–19 obesity, 21.1% · 64.8% of calories, ages 6–11.

What happened?

There is no one simple answer on this page. Our food changed. Our environment changed. Our jobs changed. Our transportation changed. Our entertainment changed. Our marketing changed. Our portions changed. Our understanding of nutrition changed.

Vowels exists to investigate those changes, separate evidence from assumption, and help families understand what happened before another generation inherits it.

Let's go back

Who told us this was healthy?

A health belief can become a product. A product can become normal. These investigations separate what happened, what people believed, who benefited, and what the evidence says now.

Corn flakes

From sexual restraint to America's breakfast table.

Bacon and eggs

How public relations helped define an American breakfast.

Vegan

When an ethical philosophy became interpreted as a health claim.

Low fat

What happened when one nutrient became the enemy.

Explore the history

What happens as children grow?

About one in five U.S. children and adolescents ages 2–19 has obesity. The share is 14.9% at ages 2–5 and 22.1% at ages 6–11. These figures describe weight status. They do not prove a single cause.

14.9%

Ages 2–5

22.1%

Ages 6–11

Obesity prevalence. Bars run from 0 to 40%.

What this tells us. Obesity is more common in elementary school than in preschool. The overall figure for ages 2–19 is 21.1%.Source · August 2021–August 2023 · U.S. children, measured height and weight, BMI at or above the 95th percentile · NCHS FastStats and MMWR QuickStats

Overall ages 2–19: 21.1%, MMWR.

What are teenagers actually doing?

Out of 100 U.S. high school students, in the 7 days before the 2025 survey.

Eat fruit at least once a day

39 of 100

Eat vegetables at least once a day

63 of 100

Eat breakfast every day

27 of 100

Drink 3 or more glasses of plain water a day

58 of 100

Active for 60 minutes every day

25 of 100

What this tells us. Daily breakfast, fruit, vegetables, water, and daily activity are not what most students report. Physical activity is about 25 of 100.Source · 2025 · U.S. high school students, grades 9–12 · CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2025, MMWR

Why does this look like breakfast?

  • Cereal
  • Milk
  • Orange juice
  • Why cereal?
  • Why milk?
  • Why orange juice?
  • Who put these foods together?
  • When did this become breakfast?
  • Was it nutrition, culture, marketing, convenience, or all four?
Explore the history of breakfast

Health is generational

We inherit more than genetics. We inherit recipes, routines, beliefs, shopping patterns, celebrations, portion expectations, and ideas about what food is supposed to look like. Inherited does not mean permanent.

  1. Grandparents' environment and traditions
  2. Parents' habits, convenience, and marketing
  3. Children's environment and what becomes normal
  4. Adult behavior
  5. The next generation
  6. Awareness

What changed together?

Food spending, eating away from home, sweet drinks, portion sizes, and advertising moved over the same decades. Understanding why requires the whole system. Vowels will put a year on this timeline only when that year has a public source.

  • What was cooked at home?
  • What became the convenient default?
  • What was marketed to children?
  • What do children see adults eat now?

The conversation has changed

If the guidance is clearer, how do families use it?

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 emphasize real, nutrient-dense foods and home-prepared meals, and tell people to avoid highly processed salty or sweet foods and sugar-sweetened beverages. The public toolkit pictures that as protein foods, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and whole grains. RealFood.gov describes the guidance as flexible across cultures and kitchens. Clearer guidance still has to be understood.

Dietary Guidelines, 2025–2030See the pictureUSDA toolkit
Eat Real Food poster from the Dietary Guidelines toolkit, showing protein, dairy, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.

Where Vowels stands

We support real food. We support children.

Vowels.org does not support food products or food brands. We are not a diet company, a food brand, a lobbying organization, or a product-rating business.

We exist for children.

For Vowels, real food is the ingredient, with nothing added. An apple. A potato. An egg. A carrot. Beans, rice, oats, milk, fish, chicken. Cooking does not stop an ingredient from being real food. A product made from ingredients to sell is a different thing.

We align with the movement toward whole foods in the Dietary Guidelines and RealFood.gov. Our standard is simpler, and stricter, than that public picture.

We don't endorse products. We don't promote brands. We don't take sides in diet wars. We support children.

Read where we stand

Understand your food

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