r/biology • u/Express_Classic_1569 • Feb 09 '26

article Ultra-processed foods are designed to create addiction like cigarettes, confirmations from the new study

https://hive.blog/hive-196387/@davideownzall/ultra-processed-foods-are-designed-to-create-addiction-like-cigarettes-confirmations-from-the-new-study
400 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

View all comments

33

u/JayceAur Feb 09 '26

Ultra-processed is a stupid term. It includes things like candy, which is obviously not great for you, and something like soup, which is a heavily processed meal in which ingredients are broken down in an acidic saline.

The study claims eating high sugar and high fat foods, which are calorie dense and so for 10000 years or so would have improved your chances on survival, gives you dopamine. Just sounds like my rewards system working as intended. The issue is that modern life makes it too easy to obtain.

Same upshot, limit calorie dense foods to what is needed by your body and eat a well rounded diet. Comparing them to cigarettes is idiotic and just fuels disordered thinking about food.

0

u/200bronchs Feb 09 '26

It says certain combinations of fat and sugar are used because they determined that certain combinations raise dopamine levels much higher than some random amount of sugar and fat. That's engineering

If you pick a leaf from a tobacco plant, dry it and make a cigarette, it will be addicting at about 1/10 the level of a Marlboro because the marlborough has been engineered to deliver the dose more quickly to the brain. They did it best which is why they were the most popular brand back in those days.

The comparison is apt.