Scientists from three prestigious American universities point out that ultra-processed foods have more in common with tobacco than with fruits or vegetables. due to the method of production, marketing and health effects. Ultra-processed foods are industrially produced products, often with the use of emulsifiers, artificial colors and flavors.
They include, for example sweetened soft drinks or packaged snacks such as chips and cookies, as well as sweets, cold meats, spreads and packaged salads. According to the authors of the study, these products are purposefully designed to encourage addictive behavior and excessive consumption.
A study by scientists from Harvard University, the University of Michigan and Duke University was published in the professional journal Milbank Quarterly. The authors point to similarities in the manufacturing processes of ultra-processed foods and cigarettes, including efforts by manufacturers to optimize the dosage and speed of action on the reward centers in the human body.
“My patients tell me, ‘I feel addicted to it, I crave it—I used to smoke cigarettes and now I have the same habit, just with soda and donuts. I know it’s killing me, I want to stop, but I can’t,'” adds one of the authors of the study Professor Ashley Gearhardt from the University of Michigan.
The authors also criticize marketing strategies, such as low-fat or sugar-free claims, which they describe as brainwashing with pseudo-healthy rhetoric. According to them, they are reminiscent of advertising for cigarette filters from the 1950s, which were presented as a protective innovation, although in practice they offered only a minimal real benefit.
The authors add that many ultra-processed foods share more common characteristics with cigarettes than with minimally processed fruits or vegetables and require regulation commensurate with the significant risks to public health. They suggest using experience from tobacco regulation, including limiting marketing and strengthening the responsibility of the food industry.
