12 | Is Food Addiction Real? Exploring Hyperpalatable Foods & Their Impact

Today we’re talking about hyperpalatable foods, what makes food delicious and drives cravings, and what that means to us as consumers and individuals trying to become experts on our own nutrition.

Content warning: we do touch on certain aspects of eating disorders and disordered eating patterns in this episode

4:52 Hyperpalatable foods (HPF) are foods that are engineered to be extremely tasty, appealing, and “addictive.” HPFs contain combinations of fat, sugar, salt, and other flavors that stimulate the reward centers in the brain. There are not “bad” foods; they are foods engineered to be exceptionally delicious.

6:56 When we crave HPFs, it’s not because we’re “broken;” it’s because we’re reacting just as these foods are supposed to make us react.

7:30 We talk through the official definition and characteristics of a HPF, as defined by a research team in 2019. HPFs contain a specific combination of nutrients, create an artificially enhanced eating experience, and slow one’s satiety mechanisms.

9:38 A “bliss point” is an optimized combination of sugar, fat, salt, texture, aroma etc. that create maximum palatability and irresistibility. Bliss points light up the reward and craving centers in the brain, making us want to keep eating.

14:00 We have seen the rise of packaged foods over decades. Some of the tactics used to market snack and frozen food products are the same tactics used to market tobacco. For more information on the food labeling legislation and law around selling junk food to minors in Oaxaca: https://foodtank.com/news/2020/10/mexican-state-of-oaxaca-becomes-first-to-ban-selling-junk-food-to-children/

19:11 In 2016, it was discovered that the sugar industry had funded and published research in the 1960s to highlight the hazards of fat, while simultaneously downplaying the risks of sugar. There is a lot of lobbying behind various diet trends that gain, and lose, popularity over time.

20:52 HPFs are generally less expensive and more accessible. This makes it outrageously easy to consume HPF, and overconsumption leads to poor health outcomes.

21:23 Are HPFs addictive? We delve into the controversy around this topic and why we can’t answer definitively.  More research needed in this area.

25:05 HPFs seem to hijack and dysregulate normal appetite control signals in the brain, driving addictive-like consumption, especially in vulnerable individuals. Understanding how HPFs impact us can help give these foods less powerful and leave us more informed around our food choices.

30:39 Research found that a food was more than 4 times more likely to be an HPF in 2018 than in 1988. A substantial sample of popular foods in the US food system found that most foods were HPFs. 

33:55 The implication of this entire body of research is that we live in a food environment in which a majority of foods are designed to take advantage of our psychology and neurobiology.

35:36 How do we navigate this information? How do we balance flexibility with also promoting healthful food choices? We talk about the implications of this knowledge and how we can promote balance rather than fear around HPFs.

Due to limited space in show notes, email for references: kate@katelymannutrition.com

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