Photo by Franki Chamaki
Can’t stop eating that bag of chips until you lick the salt nestled in the corners of the empty packet from your fingers? You’re not alone. And it’s not entirely your fault that the last planned handful of chips wasn’t, in fact, the last for this snacking session. Many common snacks have been expertly designed to keep us hooked and almost constantly craving more of the fake-satisfying manufactured treats laid out in front of us.
“Humans have an inherited preference for energy-dense foods, like fats and sugars, and so natural selection has predisposed us to foods high in sugar and fats,” says Jennifer Kaplan, who taught the Introduction to Foods course. food systems at the Culinary Institute. Institute of America in St. Helena, California. “Food scientists know this and are creating ingredients that are much higher in fat and sugar than those found in nature. The most common sugar is high fructose corn syrup and is therefore inherently addictive. In fact, foods that were previously unsweetened, like pasta sauce, are now artificially sweetened to make consumers crave that product, with sugar levels that can rival those found in packaged desserts.
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is found in everything from ketchup and salad dressing to cereal and bread (foods that aren’t necessarily perceived as sweet) and sometimes even in “healthier” alternatives , like light beer. In 2019, Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis-based brewer of Bud Light, highlighted the fact that the popular beer did not contain HFCS during a controversial Super Bowl commercial. The ad, which attempted to present Bud Light as the most desirable light beer due to its lack of corn syrup (unlike its competitors), notably annoyed Midwestern corn farmers, who are subsidized by the U.S. government to continue pumping our processed beer. foods containing corn products.
These “multi-billion dollar government programs,” however, do not reach small farmers. “The largest 10% of farms receive almost 80% of the subsidies, mainly for commodity crops such as corn and soybeans – and entities downstream or upstream of the actual farmers make most of the profits,” according to a 2023 Kansas City opinion article. Star.
Corn syrup and high-fructose salts are as addictive as drugs
So what’s so bad about HFCS, the ubiquitous and essential ingredient in the interior aisles of American supermarkets? One tablespoon of the super-sweet stuff has about 53 calories, 14.4 grams of carbs, and 5 grams of sugar, while a whole ear of corn has about 123 calories. It’s much easier to ingest extra, empty calories when they’re processed into a sugary additive, which enhances the flavor of processed foods.
Low-income households consume more ultra-processed foods because they have a longer shelf life, are more accessible, and are heavily marketed. This leads these households to have more health problems like obesity and cardiometabolic diseases.
As an ingredient, a 2013 study showed HFCS to be as addictive as drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, with salt having similar qualities to opioids. Australian neuroscientist Craig Smith has studied the effect of salt cravings in humans for years, concluding that excessive sodium consumption makes you crave salt more, in his 2016 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The study suggests that opioid-blocking drugs may inhibit our cravings for salt.
“These results pave the way for us to study this salt-seeking circuit in humans using magnetic resonance imaging and other techniques, to then develop targeted drugs to inhibit salt cravings and promote healthier food choices,” Smith said, according to a November 2016 article in the journal Cosmos. “If processed food producers are slow to address the need to reduce salt in their products, this could be another way to reduce deaths associated with high salt consumption.”
Even if a particular food isn’t too salty, it can sneak into packaged foods more widely than expected. “In most cases, salt is used as a preservative to extend the shelf life of foods and keep them safe,” says Nia Rennix, a clinical nutritionist specializing in weight loss and blood sugar regulation. Salt can also be used to enhance the color of a food (for example to give the crust of bread a more attractive golden brown), as well as to enhance the taste of foods that you may not associate with salty taste, like ketchup or bread.
You may not taste the salt in your local mall pretzels or packaged condiments, but salt as an ingredient keeps you hooked. “Salt is extremely addictive, just as much as sugar. The more salt you eat, the more you crave it, and manufacturers realize this,” says Rennix. “They keep adding salt to food because they want you to keep buying (their products). It doesn’t matter whether the salt is white, pink, sea or crystallized, it all has the same effect on the body. The packaging may lead you to believe that some salts are healthier, but in reality, they are all just as bad in excess.
The harmful health effects of too much salt and sugar in our foods
Beyond overeating in general, eating too much salt is proven to have negative effects on human health. “Eating too much salt is not good for your health because the excess water you retain increases your blood pressure. The more salt you eat, the higher your blood pressure,” says Rennix. “All of this can put strain on your heart, kidneys, brain and arteries, which could lead to a stroke, heart attack or kidney disease.”
And yet, Americans remain occasionally addicted to these products, leading to the looming public health crises of obesity and related diseases. Based on data from 2017 through March 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said nearly 42% of U.S. adults are affected by obesity, a condition closely associated with heart disease, stroke, diabetes type 2, certain types of cancer and premature births. the death. Even armed with this knowledge, many Americans are routinely drawn to foods designed to be hard to resist.
Excessive consumption of sugar and salt also leads to health problems in children, leading to an increasing risk of obesity and effects on blood pressure during childhood. “One in six young people in the United States suffer from obesity,” says a January 2024 Forbes article, providing data from the National Survey of Children’s Health. “Over the past three decades, childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled among adolescents and more than doubled among children,” the article adds.
The United States Department of Agriculture decided in April 2024 to regulate children’s school meals and announced rules that will “limit added sugars” in these meals for the first time between fall 2025 and 2027, according to a USA Today article.
“Making food really tasty is just the start,” says chef and dietitian Jessica Swift, who has a master’s degree in nutritional science. “Providing foods full of sugar to people with a sweet tooth is the goal of junk food companies. Having this sugar could release dopamine, the feel-good hormone in the brain, which associates this food with pleasure, causing the body to crave more.
This feeling of well-being will make you addicted to certain foods, which will provide instant comfort when consumed. “Wanting to reiterate that pleasure is natural and that can lead to overconsumption of these foods,” Swift says.
Soothing yourself with food is a common, easy, and often inexpensive tactic for a quick fix, but seeking that comfort can still be less obvious, especially when you’re not necessarily feeling depressed. For example, smelling a dish in front of a restaurant or in a supermarket can evoke pleasant memories that trigger cravings.
“Absolutely, smelling warm apple pie might remind you of grandma’s Sunday dinners. Gingerbread might remind you of a family vacation. (Scent can play a role in)…emotional attachment to food,” says Swift. Associating food with pleasure makes humans even more dependent on foods designed with excess sugar, salt, and fat to make you want more. Sniffing Cinnabon at the mall is a scent that tempts shoppers to consume previously undesirable calories and sugars.
Moving away from highly addictive foods
Although food addiction is often used colloquially, the Yale Food Addiction Scale was developed to measure the level of addiction to a substance. Yet even if not clinically diagnosed, humans can be unhealthy addicted to junk food. So how can we stop it?
“Choose moderation for foods that you think might be highly addictive,” Swift recommends. “Make sure you eat a well-balanced diet and drink plenty of fluids.” When shopping for items to stock your pantry, read nutrition labels and avoid foods high in sodium and sugar. “Don’t keep these foods on hand,” says Swift. “In general, when you have to make an effort to obtain an item, you are less likely to consume it.” At least in this case, laziness can improve your health.
Beyond the individual level, the government must implement policies that promote healthy eating habits among the population. Americans get the majority of their calories from highly processed foods – between 60 and 90 percent, leading to a “health crisis,” according to a 2009-2010 study. “Agricultural subsidies from the US Farm Bill, which mainly support the production of corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, sorghum, dairy products and livestock feed, could play a role in food consumption patterns unhealthy,” says a 2020 study published in the journal Nutrients.
Pourya Valizadeh, research assistant professor in the department of agricultural economics at Texas A&M University, and Shu Wen Ng, health economist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, emphasize the need for the government to stop encourage these foods. some products. In an article published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in April 2024, they wrote: “Levying national taxes on unhealthy ultra-processed foods/beverages and providing targeted subsidies for minimally processed foods/beverages could promote healthier food choices among low-income households. .”