From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisi, and this is the daily.

A new study has found that nearly three-quarters of American adults are now obese or overweight.

And there's been growing concern among politicians, scientists, and consumers about one potential culprit.

Are ultra-processed foods to blame for...

Your addiction to sugar and ultra-processed foods and ultra-processed foods?

Ultra-processed food.

We are all addicted to eating fast food and ultra-processed foods, and that is

melting our brains in real time. Straight up. Today, my colleague, nutrition writer Alice Callahan,

on how these foods came to be such a big part of what we eat and why that's so hard to change.

Thank you. and why that's so hard to change. It's Friday, December 13th.

Alice Callahan, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

It's so good to be here, Sabrina.

So you cover nutrition for the times, and you, as I understand, are uniquely qualified to have this conversation about ultra-processed foods because you literally have a PhD in nutrition.

I do have a PhD in nutrition. That's right. So I started out in academia. I thought that I would be a

nutrition scientist, but pretty soon after I actually decided to transition to science writing,

because I really wanted to be in a position where I could read the science, talk to the scientists,

and then be able to turn around and kind of interpret it for everyday people who are trying to figure out what to eat.

And one of the things that we've seen in just the last few years in this field is a real

change in the way we talk about food.

When I was in graduate school, we were learning all about

carbs and fats and protein and vitamins and minerals and how we break these nutrients down and use

...