Ultraprocessed Foods: A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that ultraprocessed foods may have addictive qualities strikingly similar to tobacco. According to researchers from University of Michigan, Harvard University, and Duke University, many everyday foods are not merely unhealthy choices—they are industrially engineered products designed to drive repeated consumption.
The findings, published in the latest issue of The Milbank Quarterly, draw parallels between the food industry today and the tobacco industry of the past. The research integrates insights from addiction science, nutrition research, and the historical regulation of cigarettes, concluding that ultraprocessed foods are often formulated to hijack the brain’s reward system in ways that resemble addictive substances.
What Are Ultraprocessed Foods?
Ultraprocessed foods include packaged snacks, sugary drinks, ready-to-eat meals, fast food items, and many convenience foods. These products are typically high in refined sugars, unhealthy fats, salt, and artificial additives while being low in fiber and essential nutrients.
What distinguishes ultraprocessed foods from traditional processed foods is the intentional design behind them. Researchers argue that these foods are engineered to be hyperpalatable—delivering an intense sensory experience that makes them difficult to stop eating.
Designed for the Brain’s Reward System
The study highlights how ultraprocessed foods and tobacco products share several core characteristics:
- Both are deliberately formulated to amplify pleasure signals in the brain
- Both encourage habitual and compulsive use
- Both are heavily marketed, often targeting young people
- Both industries historically shaped public narratives to deflect blame from corporate practices
According to Ashley Gearhardt, the study’s lead author and a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Michigan, it is not accidental that certain foods feel nearly impossible to resist.
“These products are designed in ways that make ‘just one more bite’ extremely likely,” Gearhardt explains. “That doesn’t mean food is the same as smoking, but it does mean some foods may be designed to make moderation unusually difficult.”
Why This Matters for Young Adults
The researchers place particular emphasis on young adults, who have grown up in environments saturated with cheap, highly palatable foods available 24/7. Bright packaging, aggressive digital marketing, drive-through convenience, and food delivery apps have normalized constant access to ultraprocessed products.
For decades, public health messaging around diet has focused on personal responsibility—urging people to make better choices, practice self-control, and follow nutrition guidelines. While individual decisions matter, the researchers argue this framework ignores the powerful role of corporate design and food environments.
The study suggests that telling people to “just eat less junk food” is similar to early tobacco messaging that focused solely on smokers’ willpower while ignoring cigarette design and marketing tactics.
Lessons From Tobacco Regulation
The comparison to tobacco is central to the researchers’ argument. In the past, smoking was framed as a personal choice rather than a public health issue driven by product engineering. Over time, evidence revealed how cigarettes were designed to maximize nicotine delivery and addiction.
This realization led to major policy shifts—advertising restrictions, warning labels, taxation, and corporate accountability.
The authors of the ultraprocessed food study argue that food policy may need a similar evolution. Rather than placing all responsibility on consumers, governments and health organizations should examine:
- How foods are formulated
- Which products dominate store shelves
- What foods are most affordable
- How aggressively unhealthy foods are marketed
Not All Food Is the Problem
Importantly, the researchers stress that eating itself is not addictive, nor should food be stigmatized. Food is essential for survival and cultural connection. The concern is with a subset of modern industrial foods that are engineered in ways that override natural hunger and fullness cues.
The takeaway is not fear—but awareness.
Understanding how products are designed empowers consumers to question why certain foods feel so hard to resist and encourages policymakers to examine who benefits from these designs.
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Shifting the Health Conversation
For a generation navigating complex food environments, the issue extends beyond diet trends, calorie counting, or discipline. It becomes a question of systems, accountability, and transparency.
If some foods are intentionally engineered to encourage overconsumption, then addressing diet-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease may require more than education alone. It may require regulatory, economic, and cultural change.
The researchers hope their findings spark broader conversations among young adults, policymakers, and health professionals—people who will shape the future of food culture and public health.
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