How have we become addicted to processed foods?

By: Natalie Samara

The type of dishes we eat provide essential nutrients for our energy, growth, bodily function, and immune system, in addition to lowering the risk of chronic diseases and hydrating the body. 

Even then, we should also take into account the foods that are made with chemical and sugar additives, also known as processed foods. Processed foods refer to any food that is changed from its natural flavor or preservation including food that was simply cut, washed, heated, pasteurized, canned, cooked, frozen, dried, dehydrated, mixed, or packaged. For example, this can also include food that has added preservatives, nutrients, flavors, salts, sugars, or fats. Chemical additives are substances added to food for its purposes of preserving freshness, enhancing color or flavor, or to improve texture. There are also sugar additives that are substances like artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols that are added to provide sweetness with fewer calories or little-to-no impact on blood sugar compared to regular sugar and are used in "sugar-free" or "diet" foods to offer a sweet taste without the caloric and metabolic effects of sugar. 

The food group scale called the NOVA food classification has grouped it into four groups or types of processed foods as the following: 

• Group one: Unprocessed or Minimally Processed Foods: includes foods like fresh blueberries, roasted nuts, chopped vegetables, or other foods that have slight changes. It might also include things that have been dried, frozen, refrigerated, filtered, fermented, or put in vacuum-sealed packages, it is meant to preserve the natural foods and allow you to safely eat them later.

• Group Two - Processed Culinary Ingredients: contains options like butter, oils, sugar, or salts, they’re ingredients that come from nature but are slightly processed, they may have been pressed, refined, milled, or dried. These are not supposed to be eaten on their own and are meant to be added to foods during meal preparation.

• Group three - Processed Foods: include canned fish, fruits in syrup, bottled vegetables, cheese, fresh bread, or other options that were made with added salt, oil, sugar, or other things from groups one or two. Most of these foods have two or three ingredients. And are edible by themselves but can also be added to other dishes. The food in this group was processed to make it more stable or add to its qualities.

• Group Three - Processed Foods: include canned fish, fruits in syrup, bottled vegetables, cheese, fresh bread, or other options that were made with added salt, oil, sugar, or other things from groups one or two.Most of these foods have two or three ingredients. They’re edible by themselves but can also be added to other dishes. 

• Group Four: Ultra-Processed Food/Drink Products: contains foods that are typically the result of intensive manufacturing processes. They’re created from foods and additives and don’t relate much to group one foods. Like other options, these foods include sugars, oils, fats, and salt. But they also have ingredients taken from other foods, like casein, lactose, gluten, whey, hydrogenated oils, protein isolate, maltodextrin, invert sugar, and high-fructose corn syrup.

Foods that are highly processed are stripped of their basic nutrients. This is why many processed foods have added fiber, vitamins, and minerals. But once you take out the natural nutrients from a food, it’s difficult to add back all of its healthy value. Processed foods are easier for your body to digest than foods in their natural state – meaning that  your body burns fewer calories when you digest processed foods. If you eat high-calorie processed foods that require less calories to digest, it may be harder to stay at a healthy weight. Over time too we can become addicted to these processed foods, leading to consumption of ultra-processed foods, characterized by intense cravings, loss of control, continued use despite negative health consequences, and withdrawal symptoms. A few of the characteristics of this addiction include loss of control where the inability to stop or cut down on the consumption of processed foods occurs, intense cravings where a strong desire to eat processed foods, withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, headaches, or difficulty concentrating when trying to reduce the intake of foods, impaired functioning, the addiction negatively affects daily life, social activities, and our overall well-being. 

This addiction can lead to neurological behaviors such as the brain reward system where ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are high in refined carbohydrates and added fats, which rapidly absorb and trigger a surge of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and motivation. Secondly the dopamine release in the brain's reward centers mimics the effects of addictive drugs, reinforcing the behavior and creating a cycle of craving and consumption. Lastly UPF’s are engineered to be quickly absorbed by the body known as rapid absorption, providing a fast and intense "fix" that can be more rewarding than natural foods. According to the British Medical Journal, 12% of the nearly 73 million children and adolescents in the United States today struggle with a similar food addiction. Children must meet Yale Food Addiction Scale criteria as stringent as any for alcohol use disorder or other addictions. According to Ashley Gearhardt, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who conducted the research and developed the Yale addiction scale. “Kids are losing control and eating to the point where they feel physically ill,” said Gearhardt. 

Her research also shows about 14% of adults are clinically addicted to food, predominantly ultraprocessed foods with higher levels of sugar, salt, fat and additives. For comparison, 10.5% of Americans age 12 or older were diagnosed with alcohol use disorder in 2022, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. “By ages 2 or 3, children are likely eating more ultraprocessed foods in any given day than a fruit or vegetable, especially if they’re poor and don’t have enough money in their family to have enough quality food to eat,” Gearhardt said. “Ultraprocessed foods are cheap and literally everywhere, so this is also a social justice issue.”

Eating higher amounts of ultraprocessed food raises the risk of obesity and the development of chronic conditions including cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes and depressioners," said IFBA’s secretary-general, Rocco Renaldi. Another thing Renaldi points out is that sugar creates the same amount of dopamine release that mimics what you see with nicotine and ethanol — around 150% to 200% above its baseline.

Many alternatives exist to lower our consumption of processed foods, including less processed foods such as whole-grain or whole wheat bread, precut vegetables, low-fat milk Milks or juices with vitamin D and calcium, canned fruits stored in water or natural fruit juice breakfast cereals with added fiber. Besides knowing the types of foods that are less processed in sugars and chemical additives, we should be reading the labels of ingredients and the percentage it has as it can help us decide what is best for our health and bodily function.

References

Benisek, A. (2024, October 21). What are processed foods? WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/diet/what-are-processed-foods

LaMotte, S. (2024, June 28). “this disorder has almost killed me”: His addiction to Ultraprocessed Foods began as a child. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/27/health/child-addiction-ultraprocessed-foods-wellness