Is ultra-processed food addictive, or is that the wrong word for it?

Robert H. LustigMD, MSL · Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology, University of California, San Francisco; paediatric endocrinologist and neuroendocrinologist

Addictive, and the industry benefits from the argument staying open

What it rests onNutrients 2020, a sole-authored review arguing the case by analogy to tobacco, alcohol and opioids. Followed by Frontiers in Psychiatry 2025, which enumerates the eight standard objections (you need food to survive, stigma, personal responsibility, incomplete data, correlation not causation, universal exposure with non-universal addiction, no withdrawal phenotype, eating rather than food addiction), reviews which foods are most likely to be addictive, sets out two candidate mechanisms, and argues the food industry has promulgated false narratives to keep the question open.

Kevin D. HallPhD · metabolism researcher; formerly Section Chief, Integrative Physiology Section, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health

The drug-like mechanism was not detectable, and that matters

What it rests onFifty healthy adults across BMI 20 to 45, [11C]raclopride PET displacement, the same method used for drugs of abuse. Postingestive striatal response p = 0.62, no subregion p < 0.33, adiposity correlation not significant. The authors state the responses are 'likely substantially smaller than many addictive drugs and below the limits of detection using standard PET methods'.