Joe McNamee: Where the US leads, we seem to follow

One of the more intriguing aspects of the current political, social and cultural ordure-show that is the US under Trump is the unusual volatility being inflicted on corporate America, and it’s not just tariffs.

It is a rather novel development for a sacred cow sector that always traditionally found fiscal favour, under either Republicans or Democrats, in boom times or in bad. Big business in the US is now royally spooked. 

It may be novel but it is hardly surprising when you consider the collective lobotomy of malevolence that is the current US administration, including Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy and he too has his own beefs with corporate America. 

Gunning for Big Pharma chimes with his rabid anti-vaxxer schtick and plays well to the MAGA base, but he is also coming for the industrial food processing sector and their ultra-processed foods (UPFs), ‘food’ Mother Nature would have a hard time recognising and an even harder time recommending.

Accordingly, I am conflicted: for his gormless decimation of US cancer research alone, RFK deserves somewhere hotter than hell; a declaration of war on UPFs has me scrambling for a ringside seat.

But, we cry, we’re not Yanks, we barely ever touch the stuff, maybe the occasional Coke, bag of Taytos, the odd chocolate Hobnob with a cuppa. But UPFs are not just fizzy drinks, salty snacks, and sweet ‘treats’. 

They are also increasingly consumed as meals: breakfast cereals and bars, chicken nuggets, fish fingers, highly processed meats, frozen pizzas, pot noodles, powdered soups, and so many readymade meals. The ubiquitous sliced pan, with its myriad undeclared additional ingredients and excessive salt; ‘yogurts’ and ‘probiotic drinks’ with more sugar than a small sweetshop.

The list goes on — endlessly so, in the US. An Irish consumer in an American supermarket would be gobsmacked by how much of the overall offering consists of UPFs, often in moulded shapes unseen in nature, shorn of fibre and nutrients, replaced by sugar, salt, unhealthy fats and a list of additives longer than the bible. Yet, where the US leads, we seem to follow, Ireland on course to be the most obese nation in the EU by 2030.

In 1977 a Senate dietary guidelines committee, deeply concerned at rising US obesity levels, over-ruled doubting scientists unconvinced fat was the culprit. 

Though it was shown years later that carbs, especially sugars, were the real killer, it became US public health policy to reduce the intake of total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. An Americanism feels apt: that’s when shit got real.

To replace the mouthfeel and sensations of satiation, industrial food processors ramped up sugars, salt and additives in combinations that hit a profoundly addictive sweet spot and to levels where calorie count was near identical or even higher. The time bomb had begun to tick.

In the late 70s, US adult obesity was around 15%; by 2023, it had tripled to over 40%. Worse, childhood obesity, went from 5-7% to over 17% for younger kids and even higher for adolescents. It is now a health crisis of epidemic proportions, leading to an estimated 300,000-500,000 deaths each year.

Actually, I suspect RFK is tilting at windmills on UPFs. A sector valued at $200+ billion in 2025 is rallying for a fight back, cloaking the steel of humongous political power purchased by the corporate dollar in a soft soap of PR, including the promise of further ‘healthy’ innovations in the lab, which I recently stumbled across in industry marketing bumph of one such UPF behemoth. 

Ironically, the socio-economic class most affected by obesity is the same working class MAGA constituency that has enabled such an immoral huckster to achieve his position in the first place, a constituency now raised almost entirely on UPFs for several generations. Cue rallying cries about burgers being plucked from cold, dead hands — near enough the current reality.

Mind you, across the water, the UK is to restrict the advertising of junk food, a genuinely progressive move. Could that happen here? Well, our current government just gave an entirely unwarranted VAT reduction to fast food restaurants so … hmmm. But if you sometimes fall prey to guilty cravings, why not cook homemade ‘UPFs’ from scratch, using finest, local seasonal produce? Not ideal, especially too often, but infinitely healthier than the industrial stuff from the boys in the lab.

TABLE TALK

I recently wrote of Corkonian cocktail maestros Oisin Wolfe and Alex Earle, of mixology crew Cold Cuts, and their upcoming Cold Cuts cocktail bar and bistro in Cork city, opening before summer. For an advance taste of what is in prospect, pop along to their pop-up takeover of Resistance, the upstairs bar in Cork’s storied Liberty Bar. Every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for four weeks (starting February 8), expect a weekly rotating drinks menu, and a snack on the side. The first menu plays with the Martini (gin, aloe vera, cucumber), a Panache (Mo Chara Irish lager, strawberry, lemon), with gildas and terrine to snack on. Walk-ins only.

thelibertybar.ie

Imbolc: A Gaza Fundraiser (February 1, 4pm-late) is a wonderful collaborative event (€50pp) by Edel Tobin and Sarah Richards taking place in Sarah’s beautiful Seagull Bakery outlet in Tramore, with all funds going to the Nour Foundation (instagram: nour_foundation_/). 

Palestinian chef Nour Elnono will cook up her signature Palestinian spread, supplemented by delicious Deise bites, with a full additional programme of live music, short talks, and a set from legendary Cork DJ, Eddie K, carrying on into the night to welcome Imbolc and a hope-filled spring, most especially for the people of Gaza and Palestine. Tickets. €50 here. Donations: Instagram: @seagullbakerytramore.

TODAY’S SPECIAL

When you have teens, tomato ketchup tends to be the hardest working condiment in the house but lately that has been supplanted on our table by Kilkenny-based Rivesci’s Chilli Catsup (€5.50). Doing the job of your usual ketchup and then some thanks to its fine, fulsome flavours, we’ve been slathering the savoury-sweet sauce, handmade in small batches, on all manner of dishes, including a Templegall cheese toastie. Best of all on fries — homemade, of course! Rivesci.ie.