Are Processed Foods as Addictive As Nicotine? | Part 2

Do processed foods have the same addictive potential as nicotine? Join us for Part 2 of our exploration and discover firsthand the science behind this controversial topic! 

Let's take back control and use science to break the power processed foods have over us! 

Episode Highlights:

(07:53)  For those of you who struggle with these foods, I want you to know, your brain is normal. You don't have an abnormal brain. You have a brain that is responding in the way these foods were designed to make your brain respond, so just be aware of that.


(12:30) Research shows that processed food is highly reinforcing even more so than cigarettes. So here's what Dr. Gearhardt had to say: “Daily exposure to highly processed foods appears to sensitize the reinforcing value of these foods as indicated by an increased willingness to work to gain access to highly processed foods over time, and larger portions of highly processed food leads to greater sensitization”. So in other words, the bigger your portions are, then the more sensitized you get to it.


(14:23) Processed food meets all of the criteria for addiction that was laid out for nicotine in the 1988 Surgeon General's report. But now there's a fourth criteria, is that there are strong, irresistible urges for the substance in question. Processed food meets that criteria as well!