All the News That’s Fit: The ultraprocessed angle, cabbage crunching and discontinued body parts

2 days ago 1

For The Union-Tribune

Craving fast food

Researchers at the University of Michigan, Harvard and Duke argue in a new study that ultraprocessed foods, from packaged snacks to sugary beverages to ready-to-eat meals, aren’t simply junk food or bad nutritional choices. They’re industrially engineered products designed to keep you coming back using strategies once designed to sell cigarettes.

The study draws upon addiction science, nutrition research and the history of tobacco regulation.

They found striking similarities between ultraprocessed foods and tobacco products, both deliberately formulated to amplify reward in the brain, encourage habitual use and shape public perception in ways that protect profits.

But the study authors said the main takeaway isn’t that eating is the same as smoking. It’s that some of today’s most common foods may be designed in ways that make moderation unusually difficult, and public health policies need to focus on the larger systems that shape what’s on shelves, what’s affordable and what’s heavily marketed.