Debate Over Food Addiction
When healthy adult volunteers were served either ultraprocessed or unprocessed meals and ate as much as they wanted, they ate 500 calories more per day on the ultraprocessed diet, a National Institutes of Health study found.
They also ate faster and gained weight.
“We're not really sure 100% yet what's going on,” Young says.
Ultraprocessed foods are made using industrial processes, have little or no trace of whole food, and include flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers and other additives.
“It's thought that it has something to do with the combination of all these components," she says.
So eating ice cream you make at home with cream, milk and sugar appears to come with a smaller risk of overeating than consuming store-bought ice cream with “100 ingredients,” Young adds.
“These ultraprocessed, highly rewarding foods have way more in common with a cigarette than they do with an apple or an orange or black beans,” Ashley Gearhardt, Ph.D., a psychologist who studies overeating at the University of Michigan, told the National Institutes of Health.
One of her studies found pizza, chocolate, chips, cookies, ice cream and french fries were among foods that triggered the most "addictive-like eating behaviors."
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