14% of the adult population and 12% of children are addicted to ultra-processed foods, which implies an “unprecedented” level of addiction never recorded in the child population. The data appears in a study published in The British Medical Journal.
The head of the Clinical Psychology Unit of the Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB) and researcher at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (Idibell), Dr. Susana Jiménez, and the coordinator of the Eating Disorders Unit of the HUB and also IDIBELL researcher, Dr. Fernando Fernández Aranda, who participated in the study, assures that the addictive power of ultra-processed foods cannot be explained by a single individual component, since so far no specific component has been found that makes them addictive, such as nicotine in the case of tobacco.
Jiménez explained that “consuming products such as industrial pastries or prepared foods activates reward neural circuits in a similar way to how other substances do. This involves the development of impulsive behaviors, emotion dysregulation, poor physical-mental health, and a lower quality of life.”
To reduce the consumption of ultra-processed foods, experts propose applying measures to increase the accessibility and affordability of minimally processed foods, such as applying taxes to ultra-processed foods or limiting their marketing. They also suggest establishing new standards to label ultra-processed foods as addictive.
For Fernández-Aranda, another key measure would be to develop clinical guidelines for the treatment, management and prevention of addiction to this type of food.
