Highly processed foods should be classified as drugs because they are as addictive and harmful as cigarettes, scientists argue.
Researchers claim that items such as donuts, sugary breakfast cereals and pizza meet the official criteria that established cigarettes as a medicine in the 1990s.
These include compulsive use and mood-altering effects on the brain, as well as properties or ingredients that increase addiction or cravings.
Ultra-processed foods—including things like soda, chips, baked goods, and candy—contain large amounts of unnatural flavors, preservatives, and sweeteners.
These properties give them their delicious taste, but also make them high in calories, fat, sugar or salt, which increases the risk of obesity and other chronic diseases.
Researchers led by dr. Ashley Gearhardt, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, told DailyMail.com that these foods are more like a drug because they are far from natural foods in taste and texture.
“They are manufactured substances intended to provide sugar and fat,” Dr. Alexandra DiFeliceantoni, professor of health behavior at Virginia Tech University.
“They are no longer food. These are products that are very well designed to deliver addictive substances.”
The researchers want the marketing of these foods to be limited to children, just as nicotine advertising should not be aimed at children. But they stopped short of advocating an outright age ban.
Highly processed foods should be classified as drugs because they are as addictive and harmful as cigarettes, scientists argue
Dr. Ashley Gearhardt (left), a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, said HPFs are more of a drug than a food. Dr. Alexandra DiFeliceantoni (right), professor of health behavior at Virginia Tech, described the food as vessels for the release of addictive substances.
America’s obesity crisis is largely linked to the proliferation of ultra-processed foods. Food is believed to make up about 50 percent of the American diet.
As a result, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 70 percent of Americans are obese, with 40 percent classified as obese.
DR Gearhardt warned that even people of healthy weight are still at risk of developing cancer and other problems from eating junk food.
Among other things, the foods have been linked to an increase in diseases such as colon and kidney cancer and Alzheimer’s in the United States.
Constantly elevated blood sugar levels due to eating sugary foods can also lead to diabetes.
A shocking study published in September, which found that rates of early-onset breast, colon and pancreatic cancer are increasing worldwide, also pointed to these foods as the culprit.
Brazilian researchers released a study earlier this week that suggested one in five premature deaths in the South American country is linked to processed foods.
Now experts are calling for it to be regulated in the same way as nicotine.
In 1988, Dr. Charles Everett Koop, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s US surgeon general, wrote a 600-page report on nicotine addiction.
At the time, more than half of American adults smoked cigarettes, but the long-term effects of using them were relatively unknown.
Dr Koop used three key criteria, compulsive use, mood swings and reinforcement, to establish that nicotine is an addictive drug.
Last year, scientists found that cigarette cravings, according to many chronic users, are also a fourth pillar of addiction.
Dr. Gearhardt and Dr. DiFeliceantoni also applied the standards used to determine that nicotine is an addictive substance to highly processed foods.
The first was compulsive consumption, which they described as a person wanting to eat the foods despite being aware of how unhealthy they are.
“People want to lose weight, people diet, and the vast majority of people fail,” Dr. Gearhardt to DailyMail.com.
“It’s hard for them, even though they know it’s going to kill them.”
She blamed the food’s fat and sugar content for an addictive response in the brain.
While more research on junk food is needed to determine exactly how it affects the brain, she believes the speed at which the body processes it may play a role.
These quick hits are similar to how nicotine, alcohol and cocaine work throughout the body, the researchers say.
The high sugar and fat content of these foods also affects a person’s dopamine receptors in the brain.
“It affects your well-being or mood in a way that is useful for the brain,” explains dr. DiFeliceantoni out.
The research pair describe it as a “psychoactive” effect that requires a person to consume more highly processed snacks to achieve it – similar to other drugs.
Processed foods also have a “reinforcing” effect, allowing a person to seek out the food even when they don’t need it.
DR Gearhardt uses the example of a person with healthy food in the fridge who decides to buy chocolate ice cream because of their addiction.
People may also crave their favorite junk food and look for the effect that heavy fats and sugars have on the brain – and meet the fourth criterion, which will be added later.
Eating these foods can have serious negative health effects over time.
“We know HPFs” [highly-processed foods] Consumption is linked to cancer… consumption [these]Eating increases the risk of cancer even in a healthy person,” she said.
“If you’re skinny, you’re still at risk.”
The Michigan doctor points out that many of the tactics companies have used over the past few decades to sell cigarettes to young people are not being used for HPFs.
Just as tobacco companies used characters like Joe Camel in the 1990s, many of these foods marketed to children also have “cool” and colorful characters.
In 1963, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company purchased Joe Camel Hawaiian Punch from the original manufacturer.
Originally developed as a cocktail maker for adults, the tobacco company stuck a character called “Punchy” on their sweet drink and began marketing it to children.
It was later sold to American manufacturing giant Procter & Gamble in 1990, but not before becoming a household name.
In 1985, Philip Morris—then and now the nation’s largest cigarette maker—acquired General Foods, which now owns popular, colorful children’s cereals marketed to children, such as Trix, Lucky Charms and Coco Puffs.
The two scientists’ report did not specifically target products made by companies owned or operated by the cigarette manufacturers.
DR According to Gearhardt, these are examples of how the industry uses what he learned from selling nicotine to market another harmful drug.
Just as the Federal Trade Commission cracked down on the marketing of nicotine to children in the 1990s, both researchers want similar policies for HPFs.
“The consequences of this are so great that we have to act,” said Dr. Gearhardt added.
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Lloyd Grunewald is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. He is a talented writer who focuses on bringing the latest entertainment-related news to his readers. With a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and a passion for writing, Lloyd delivers engaging articles that keep his readers informed and entertained.
