Back when Kerri Boutelle's children were younger, she remembers watching how kids would eat ice cream cones. She noticed a big difference between some siblings.
"One child would eat half of the ice cream cone and put it down," says Boutelle, who's a psychologist at the University of California, San Diego. Another child would eat their cone extremely fast, grab the leftover cone from the first child, and eat that one, too.
For more than 30 years, Boutelle has helped children with eating disorders and obesity. This informal experiment, she says, illustrates something Boutelle and other scientists are starting to realize: not all children respond to ultra-processed foods in the same way.
Some children are born with what scientists call a strong food reward drive, says psychologist Ashley Gearhardt at the University of Michigan. They feel extra strong motivation to eat. They're hungry often, may eat quickly, and they don't easily feel full or satiated. Kids with a strong food reward drive can regulate their eating with whole or minimally processed foods, she says. But with ultra-processed food, they struggle.
Popular advice around ultra-processed foods probably isn't going to work well when a kid has a strong food reward drive, Gearhardt adds. They need different help and guidance to feel good and stay healthy in our society, where these foods are ubiquitous.
"A strong reward drive served people in times of famine, but it's a nightmare in an ultra-processed food environment," she says.
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