Food is not addictive, but is filled with Addictive Drugs -- Engineered Chemicals to Elicit Addiction

Photo by Edward Guk on Unsplash

One of the toughest addictions which I have faced is that of giving up 'fast food' eating.  Am I cured of eating 'fast food'?  No.  Have I dramatically reduced eating out at 'fast food' venues - YES.  Since then, my diet has changed along with the associated weight loss one would expect.  Further, I have a different preference for food.  Why?  I am not craving the chemicals -- additives which are as powerful as drugs which manufacturers insert into the 'fast food' recipe.

Food Additives?

The subject makes me think about a podcast I was listening to around a year ago.  It was an interview of an investor on Wall Street -- an employee of a large bank who day trades.  She was directed to change her investment strategies one year by her boss.  Her new focus was primarily on the food industry.  A subject about which, she knew very little.  Over time, after digging into the fundamentals, she began to realize that the 'fast food' industry chooses to use chemicals (colorings, additives, etc.) which are not healthy for the average consumer.

More importantly, she found that the same 'fast food' chains in European countries have substituted the harmful chemicals with a safer (and healthier) alternative at the request of the consumers.  Imagine what I was thinking at the moment listening to the interview?  

My jaw dropped while I was running on the indoor track at the university at which I work!

Suddenly I realized that the food manufacturers have a choice to find a healthier alternative if pressed to do so.  Although, if no one pushes them to change, the status quo (i.e., unhealthy) remains the day to day operative methodology.   Which is sad to say.

Recently, I ran across a blog post on Medium titled "Stop calling food addictive" in which a similar revelation regarding the additives to 'fast food' recipes by food manufacturers:

It’s true that rats, monkeys and humans show addiction-like behaviour when exposed to highly palatable, calorie-dense foods, sometimes even preferring them to drugs such as cocaine. But I’ve come to see that nearly all the foods that elicit addictive behaviour share one thing in common: they have been significantly altered or enhanced through manufactured flavour chemicals and ingredients — also known as drugs.

Quite simply, food is not addictive; drugs are addictive. And food companies are putting drugs in our food. The correct name for this problem is food additive addiction, or perhaps refined food addiction.

Was anybody living 200 years ago addicted to food? I have never come across an account of an apple addiction, a cashew addiction, or a salmon addiction. But were people living 200 years ago addicted to alcohol, tobacco, or opiates? Of course. That’s because each of those substances has inherently addictive properties, containing a specific psychoactive compound that causes intoxication, dependence or withdrawal. Such addictive substances rarely occur in nature, and are typically created through processing.

Commercially sold cookies now share many of the same reward-giving properties as crystal meth. That’s because they contain highly palatable and highly profitable ingredients, often forms of sugar or salt. These are not your grandmother’s salt and sugar — they are complex formulations engineered by food scientists to be irresistible. They’re psychoactive compounds that meet the definition of an addictive substance.

For example, forms of salt have been developed that dissolve far faster than normal and deliver a jolt to the brain. These resemble natural salt no more than crack cocaine resembles the coca leaf.

If we were to remove the engineered flavor chemicals from our processed food, it wouldn’t sell — it would be edible, but not highly palatable, and certainly not addictive.

The author brings up valid points of argument as to why food is so addictive.  Which mainly lies in the design of the food by the food manufacturers.  As a chemist, I am always interested in the design of food by these large corporations.  To be able to make a 'Big Mac' the same in the United States as in the desert of Kuwait is no small feat.  These foods are highly engineered.  The chemists have outdone themselves with the knowledge of perfection.



Recently in the news, Burger King has released the first plant-based veggie Whopper -- which is made out of plant-based ingredients -- No Actual Meat.  Imagine perfecting a veggie Whopper to taste identical to the actual Whopper which is made with Real Beef?  The chemistry behind the process and knowledge is impressive.  I often wonder what the day to day job of a food chemist is at Mc Donald's Research Corporation or Burger King University?  Must be amazing.



The food is equivalent to the knowledge of tobacco by the Tobacco Industry.

Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS)

In the article, the author did mention the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) which has the following description on the Wikipedia page below:

The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) is a 25-point questionnaire, based on DSM-IV codes for substance dependence criteria, to assess food addiction in individuals. The scale was released in 2009 by Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.[1]

It was found that the brain mechanisms in people with food addiction were similar to those in people with substance dependence, such as drug addicts.[2] While there is currently no official diagnosis of "food addiction", the YFAS was created to identify persons who exhibited symptoms of dependency towards certain food. Foods most notably identified by YFAS to cause food addiction were those high in fat and high in sugar. A self-reported standardized tool was created by a Yale researcher, Ashley Gearhardt, to determine those individuals at high risk for food addiction, regardless of weight.[1]

The subject of food addiction is difficult to tease out and controversial in nature.  Although, each of us can agree on the fact that 'fast food' can be easily addictive over time.  In fact, any food item can be addictive over time if enough pleasure is derived from eating it.  'Fast Food' has won the test of time in terms of addictive consumption which is why this story is emerging.



The food manufacturers need to be gathered into a room to discuss the problem and the link to society's obesity epidemic which is associated with our love for 'fast food.'  Although that might require such corporations to admit to 'spiking' food with addictive compounds (chemicals), which promote consumption and mimic other favorite meals.  Just think how would such a corporation change the recipe from a meat-based burger to a plant-based burger without altering the chemical composition to keep the taste the same?



Questions like those above are a large part of why I love chemistry (science in general).  My intellectual appetite is never a need.  I can always find digestible and satiable information (data) to satisfy my intellectual thirst or appetite.  Over time, with technology changing along with consumer tastes changing, change is inevitable in the 'fast food' arena.  To come clean about additive compounds which drive consumption and sales.  The data is in the hands of these corporations.  The impetus is on the public to not only demand change to a healthier alternative, but also to the data which shows the health data.  Until we get there, we will be at the mercy of these corporations.




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