Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have more in common with cigarettes than with fruit or vegetables, and require far tighter regulation, according to a new report.
UPFs and cigarettes are engineered to encourage addiction and consumption, researchers from three US universities said, pointing to the parallels in widespread health harms that link both.
UPFs, which are widely available worldwide, are food products that have been industrially manufactured, often using emulsifiers or artificial colouring and flavours. The category includes soft drinks and packaged snacks such as crisps and biscuits.
There are similarities in the production processes of UPFs and cigarettes, and in manufacturers’ efforts to optimise the “doses” of products and how quickly they act on reward pathways in the body, according to the paper from researchers at Harvard, the University of Michigan and Duke University.
One of the authors, Prof Ashley Gearhardt of the University of Michigan, a clinical psychologist specialising in addiction, said her patients made the same links: “They would say, ‘I feel addicted to this stuff, I crave it – I used to smoke cigarettes [and] now I have the same habit but it’s with soda and doughnuts. I know it’s killing me; I want to quit, but I can’t.’”
MSG?
It’s certainly a factor, but not the whole picture. MSG is naturally occurring in a lot of whole foods as well. You don’t often hear of people with a crippling addiction to kelp or tomatoes.
Also if you do home cooking with msg (I used to, but stopped out of not bothering with msg) it really isn’t that addictive. It enhances umami flavor, which is excellent for when you really want a dish to pop, but it’s not like you’re gonna down an entire casserole because you put msg in it. Though you might eat more of your pan fried broccoli because the msg really kicks it up a notch.
Seriously, msg does more to improve the flavor of roasted and pan fried veggies than anything else, if you struggle with eating such things it may help