\n Is it the amount of fat? (Yum.) Refined carbs and extra sugar? (Double yum.) Salt? Lots of calories packed into a single bite?\n <\/p>\n
\n My grandma\u2019s chocolate chip-oatmeal cookie recipe has all that and more. But while I love to make and gobble them up, I don\u2019t crave them like someone addicted to cigarettes or booze.\n <\/p>\n
\n Yet research shows more and more people in the United States are becoming clinically addicted to ultraprocessed foods<\/a>, or UPFs, that fill up to 70% of grocery store shelves.\n <\/p>\n \n In order to be \u201cclinically\u201d addicted, one must meet Yale Food Addiction Scale<\/a> criteria, as stringent as those for tobacco, drug or alcohol use disorder.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cGrandma doesn\u2019t have access to proprietary sensory scientists that create a burst of flavors that fade, leaving you wanting more,\u201d said food addiction specialist Ashley Gearhardt, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.\n <\/p>\n \n By manipulating levels of added sugars, refined carbs, salt, fats, flavorings and texturizers, food manufacturers can create the perfect \u201cintense, hedonic, addictive punch\u201d that makes millions of people reach for more<\/a>, said Gearhardt, who developed the addiction scale.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cUltraprocessed products have a nutritional signature \u2014 based on the neuroscience of food reward \u2014 that Mother Nature never delivers to you in a single food,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n To survive, humans need sodium<\/a> for nerve conduction, fluid balance and working muscles. Sugar and carbohydrates, metabolized into glucose, serve as primary fuel. Essential fatty acids are also critical \u2014 the human brain is nearly 60% fat \u2014 and storing fat about the body is a priority for times when food is scarce.\n <\/p>\n \n For our hunter-gatherer ancestors, getting enough of these critical nutrients was a daily life-and-death struggle. It\u2019s no wonder many people crave carbs, fat and salt \u2014 it\u2019s part of our physiological drive to survive. Yet, there is little place for that primal urge in the modern world.\n <\/p>\n \n Foods packed with these key nutrients are \u201ceasily and instantaneously available in every vending machine, fast-food restaurant and every grocery store \u2014 and can even be purchased online and delivered to your door,\u201d said Evan Forman, the Ellen M. & Dale W. Garber Professor of Family & Community Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIf you look at the phenomenon of GLP-1 medications, this overabundance is what they are treating,\u201d Forman said. \u201cInstead of regulating our food, we\u2019re pathologizing people, calling overeating a disease, and then prescribing them medication.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In today\u2019s food environment, addiction to UPFs should not be written off as a lack of personal willpower, said Forman, who researches ultraprocessed food addiction<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cFood industry formulations are taking advantage \u2014 essentially exploiting a very deep-set and powerful biological response we have to certain substances,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cTake heroin or fentanyl, for example,\u201d Forman added. \u201cWe don\u2019t make the argument, \u2018Well, you know, people should just resist heroin.\u2019 It would not make sense to say everyone should rely on their willpower.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Some 14% of older adults<\/a> in the United States \u2014 and 21% of women<\/a> ages 50 to 64 \u2014 are now clinically addicted to ultraprocessed foods, according to the Yale Food Addiction Scale. Those numbers are growing.\n <\/p>\n \n Globally, 12% of children<\/a> are addicted to ultraprocessed foods, according to Gearhardt, whose research helped define California\u2019s recent law<\/a> that will remove the most harmful UPFs from billions of the state\u2019s school meals by 2035.\n <\/p>\n \n But not all ultraprocessed foods are habit-forming. To determine which ones fall into this category, it would be helpful to know which combination of hyperpalatable ingredients is driving the most addictive response.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPeople come in with their favorite villain: \u2018I think it\u2019s fat.\u2019 \u2018I think it\u2019s sodium.\u2019 \u2018I think it\u2019s carbs,\u2019 or whatever,\u201d Gearhardt said. \u201cSo, we did a study<\/a> asking a representative sample of 1,600 American adults to tell us how they rate a food\u2019s characteristics.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n More than 90% of products in the highest tier of perceived addictiveness were ultraprocessed foods that deliver high levels of refined carbs and fats.\n <\/p>\n Key role of starches and refined grains<\/p>\n \n Not surprisingly, some of the most addictive foods named in the study were grocery store junk foods \u2014 ultraprocessed cookies, cakes, doughnuts, muffins, pies, pizza, chips, candy and other snack foods. Fast-food chicken tenders, breakfast sandwiches, hash browns, chicken wings, garlic bread, store-bought mac and cheese and lasagna with meat sauce were also top contenders.\n <\/p>\n \n Those high-fat, high-carb combos also had to be delivered in an energy-dense form to be described as hard to resist, Gearhardt said: \u201cWe can\u2019t just say, \u2018Is it fat or is it carbs, is it energy density, or calories per gram. It\u2019s all of them working in synergistic packages that create the addictive bite.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Few minimally processed foods fell into the highest risk of addiction category \u2014 although bagels, croissants, Belgian waffles or French toast with syrup, grilled cheese sandwiches, mashed potatoes with store-bought gravy, roasted potatoes with butter, and homemade bread were considered highly habit-forming.\n <\/p>\n \n What makes these foods problematic? They use ultraprocessed, refined flours that quickly turn into glucose in the body, spiking blood sugars. The starch in potatoes does the same. That quick high is soon followed by a dramatic drop in blood sugars, leaving an empty feeling in the belly that can lead to overeating.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOur findings suggest that focusing exclusively on sugar may miss part of the picture,\u201d Gearhardt said. \u201cFor example, many potato chips contain little or no added sugar, yet they still deliver rapidly absorbed carbohydrates. So, refined carbohydrates, including starches that are rapidly digested into glucose, appear to be important contributors.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The International Food & Beverage Alliance, which represents food manufacturers, told CNN in an email that the study does not show that specific foods cause clinical addiction.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt identifies nutrient patterns associated with higher self-reported ratings, but that is not the same as showing that those foods cause addiction or should be treated like addictive substances,\u201d said IFBA Secretary General Rocco Renaldi.\n <\/p>\n \n Overall, American perceptions on what is addictive fit nicely with prior research on ultraprocessed foods.\n <\/p>\n \n Two gold-standard clinical trials<\/a> sequestered dozens of volunteers in a hospital for a month and monitored every bite they ate \u2014 as well as their exercise, stool samples and health vitals. The results showed people on an ultraprocessed diet ate an additional 500 to 1,000 calories each day<\/a> compared with eating home-cooked whole foods.\n <\/p>\n \n Which foods spurred people to eat the most calories? Ultraprocessed meals that were both energy-dense (lots of calories per gram) and hyperpalatable. One meal, for example, was ultraprocessed turkey and American cheese white bread sandwiches, potato chips, and peaches canned in heavy syrup.\n <\/p>\n \n Prior research has found more than 70% of all ultraprocessed foods<\/a> fit the definition of hyperpalatable \u2014 combinations of sugar, refined carbs, sodium and fat that are not found in nature.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHyperpalatable foods exaggerate the eating experience. And because they are everywhere, they are changing our taste buds to expect those levels of sugar, salt and fat in all the foods we eat,\u201d said Tera Fazzino, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kansas in Lawrence and associate director of the Cofrin Logan Center for Addiction Research and Treatment.\n <\/p>\n \n Why is an addiction to ultraprocessed foods worrisome? Experts point to the growing litany of health harms: Eating roughly 10% more ultraprocessed foods<\/a> a day led to a 55% higher risk of obesity, a 50% rise in cardiovascular disease-related death, and a 40% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.\n <\/p>\n![\"When](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781790432_550_gettyimages-1300829761.jpg\")
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