Heavily processed foods, like tobacco, have addictive potential

Heavily processed foods, like tobacco, have addictive potential

Can highly processed foods be addictive?

It's a question researchers have debated for years, as unhealthy diets are often fueled by foods loaded with refined carbohydrates and added fats.

To find a solution, a new analysis from the University of Michigan and Virginia Tech took the criteria used in a 1988 U.S. Surgeon General's report that found tobacco to be addictive and applied it to food.

Based on the criteria established for tobacco, the results suggest that highly processed foods can be addictive, said lead authors Ashley Gearhardt, an associate professor of psychology at UM, and Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, an assistant professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech.

In fact, the addictive potential of foods such as potato chips, cookies, ice cream and French fries may be a key factor contributing to the high public health costs associated with a food environment dominated by cheap, accessible and heavily marketed highly processed foods, researchers said.

The study, published in the current issue of Addiction, provides evidence that highly processed foods meet the same criteria used to identify cigarettes as an addictive drug:

• Sie lösen zwanghaften Konsum aus, wenn Menschen nicht in der Lage sind, aufzuhören oder zu reduzieren (selbst angesichts lebensbedrohlicher Krankheiten wie Diabetes und Herzerkrankungen).
• Sie können unser Befinden verändern und Veränderungen im Gehirn hervorrufen, die ähnlich groß sind wie das Nikotin in Tabakprodukten
• Sie sind stark verstärkend
• Sie lösen intensive Triebe und Heißhunger aus

“What's remarkable is that there is no biomarker in the brain that tells us whether something is addictive or not,” Gearhardt said. "Identifying that tobacco products are addictive really came down to these four criteria (which) have withstood decades of scientific evaluation. Ultra-processed foods meet every single one of these criteria."

DiFeliceantonio said that highly processed foods' ability to quickly deliver unnaturally high doses of refined carbohydrates and fats appears to be the key to their addictive potential.

Highly processed foods contain complex substances that cannot be reduced to a single chemical agent that acts through a specific central mechanism. The same goes for industrial tobacco products, which contain thousands of chemicals including nicotine, Gearhardt said.

When the Surgeon General's report was released more than 30 years ago, tobacco products were the leading cause of preventable death. But many people and tobacco manufacturers refused to accept its addictive and harmful nature.

“This delayed the implementation of effective strategies to address this public health crisis that has cost millions of lives,” said Gearhardt, who directs UM’s Food and Addiction Research and Treatment Laboratory.

"Once we realized that tobacco products were addictive, we realized that smoking wasn't just an adult choice, but that people were becoming addicted and unable to quit even if they really wanted to. The same thing appears to be happening with highly processed foods, and this is particularly concerning since children are a key target of advertising for these products."

Poor diets dominated by highly processed foods now contribute to preventable deaths on a par with cigarettes. Similar to tobacco products, the food industry designs its highly processed foods to be highly rewarding and difficult to resist, the researchers said.

“It’s time to look at highly processed foods not just as food, but as highly refined substances that can be addictive,” DiFeliceantonio said.

Source:

University of Michigan

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