You might be addicted to the foods you eat every day — without even knowing it.
Ultra-processed foods high in carbohydrates and fats, like sweets and salty snacks, are as addictive as nicotine and alcohol, according to a review.
Analysis of 281 studies from 36 different countries reveals that the prevalence of food addiction in adults is 14 percent, a similar rate to alcohol (14 percent) and tobacco (18 percent).
The rate of food addiction in people with binge eating disorder is more than 50 percent and in obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery, it is 32 percent.
While one can quit drinking or smoking, one can’t give up eating, so eliminating addictive foods from the diet becomes more complex.
The authors suggest identifying foods that are highly addictive, along with knowing why, which could help people to avoid consuming them.
Professor Ashley Gearhardt, the study’s first author, said:
“There is converging and consistent support for the validity and clinical relevance of food addiction.
By acknowledging that certain types of processed foods have the properties of addictive substances, we may be able to help improve global health.”
Not all foods are addictive
Since processed foods make up large portions of the Western diet, the issue becomes more challenging.
Dr Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, study co-author, said:
“Most foods that we think of as natural, or minimally processed, provide energy in the form of carbohydrate or fat—but not both.”
One way to distinguish ultra-processed foods (UPFs) from minimally processed foods is that UPFs often contain added fats and refined carbohydrates which are not used in home kitchens but are in food factories.
Minimally processed or natural foods rarely contain equivalent levels of fat and carbohydrates.
For example, an apple contains 55 kcal of carbohydrates and
1.5 kcal of fat (a ratio of roughly 1:0) and 100 grams of salmon contains 0 kcal of carbohydrates and 73 kcal of fat (a ratio of roughly 0:1).
UPFs, by contrast, contain much larger amounts of both carbohydrates and fats, in roughly equal proportions.
For example, a 100-gram chocolate bar has 266 kcal of fat and 237 kcal of carbohydrates, making a ratio of 1:1.
The combination of carbohydrates and fats appears to have an additive effect on the brain’s reward system that potentially increases addiction to these types of foods.
Dr DiFeliceantonio said:
“Many ultra-processed foods have higher levels of both.
That combination has a different effect on the brain.”
Due to food scarcity, some countries are dependent on UPFs as a large source of calories, but people in high-income countries do not need UPFs.
Dr DiFeliceantonio said:
“Given how prevalent these foods are—they make up 58 percent of calories consumed in the United States—there is so much we don’t know.”
Related
- Highly processed foods share many qualities with drugs that people abuse.
- Ultra-processed foods are linked to both depression and anxiety.
- A study challenges the idea that ultra-processed foods are ‘hyperpalatable’.
The study was published in the British Medical Journal (Gearhardt et al., 2023).
