How to Break Free From Hyperpalatable Foods

Food is supposed to taste good. When paired, certain flavors encapsulate some of life’s greatest pleasures — like the marriage of salty and sweet that creates the simple joy of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But some food scientists have been wondering: Is it possible for food to taste too good?

They’re not talking about the first bite of a juicy peach, a seared steak, or a ripe tomato. They’re referring to food products designed to hijack the brain’s reward system and override the body’s fullness cues.

“Eating should be an enjoyable experience, but you want to be able to stop,” says Tera Fazzino, PhD, ­associate director of the Cofrin Logan Center for Addiction Research and Treatment at the University of Kansas. “These foods can push you to eat more than you want.”

Experts call these delectables ­“hyperpalatable.” They are engineered to deliver combined doses of fat, sugar, sodium, and carbohydrates at thresholds that don’t exist in nature. These calorically dense combos light up the brain’s reward system, also known as the hedonic pathway, evoking feelings of pleasure in much the same way alcohol, nicotine, and opiates do.

In all, almost 70 percent of the foods available in the United States are hyperpalatable, according to a 2022 paper published in Public Health Nutrition. The most common offenders are frozen and ready-made meals, snack foods and desserts, processed meats, school lunches, and even food products marketed to help people lose weight.

And because hyperpalatable foods are not designed to be eaten in moderation, we’re all vulnerable to the effects of a diet oversaturated with them, which include nutrient deficiencies, systemic inflammation, and microbiome disruption.

The Hyperpalatable Threshold

Hyperpalatable foods are distinct from ultraprocessed foods, but the overlap is significant. Roughly 80 percent of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) are hyperpalatable, but not all hyperpalatable foods (HPFs) are ultraprocessed.

As the term suggests, UPFs contain industrially extracted nutrients and additives not typically used by home cooks, like sodium benzoate and ­carrageenan. (Learn more about UPFs at “The Truth About Ultraprocessed Foods.”)

Hyperpalatable foods, meanwhile, are often common snacks or ­prepared meals made with added sugar, salt, and fat to turbocharge their flavor and texture. If you can’t stop eating it, most likely it’s a hyperpalatable food.

HPFs can be classified into three groups based on ingredient pairings: added fat and sugar (think cakes, cookies, and ice cream); carbohydrates and salt (such as in crackers, pretzels, and popcorn); and fat and salt (found in processed meats and cheese products).

Any of these nutrient combinations makes food more palatable, says Filippa Juul, PhD, MSc, a nutritional epidemiologist at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, N.Y. But specific ratios of these nutrient pairs can make it downright irresistible. “Over certain thresholds, the ingredients become more reinforcing, and it will be harder to stop eating them.”

Research has shown that when a food reaches a particular ratio of fat and salt, for example, people eat up to 30 percent more of it.

“When the aim of food processing is to hedonically amplify flavors we already find rewarding, food becomes too potent for many of us to consume in moderation,” explains Ashley Gearhardt, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan. “These formulations bliss us out in ways nothing in nature can compete with.”

That expectation of a reward may lead people to eat just for pleasure (hedonic eating) rather than to satisfy hunger or provide energy (homeostatic eating), says David Wiss, PhD, RDN, IFMCP, a mental health nutritionist in Los Angeles. “People start to eat for the neurochemical reward rather than metabolic need.”

The Industrial Palate

A knock-on effect of having so many hyperpalatable foods in the food supply is that more-nutritious options — vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains — get crowded off our plates. Whole foods like fresh berries or unsalted nuts derive much of their flavor from a single nutrient, such as sugar or fat. The flavorful nutrient is paired with a slow-digesting nutrient, like fiber or protein. That balance is key for steadying blood sugar and giving the brain time to register when the stomach is full.

In contrast, hyperpalatable foods have amped-up combinations of flavorful added ingredients, but they’re stripped of nutrients that slow digestion and create a sense of fullness. And because they’re so widely available, many of us have developed a preference for these hedonically amplified, nutrient-poor foods. Food historian Amy Bentley, PhD, refers to this as “the industrial palate.”

Gearhardt adds: “The brain is not designed to recognize appeal­ing food as a threat. That’s how food companies use our biology against us.”

In preindustrial times, famine was a threat to survival — so humans were highly motivated to find calorie-dense nutrients, like carbohydrates and fats, she explains. A food’s appearance, smell, and taste could override feelings of fullness, so people could overeat in times of plenty to endure the lean times to come.

These instincts were challenged by the industrialization of the food supply in the mid-20th century, when companies began manufacturing increasingly cheap, novel, and highly palatable foods. Between 1985 and 1998, the number of new food products in the United States nearly doubled. Food companies started “reformulating their products to maximize palatability,” says Juul — all to grow their bottom lines.

Fed by Big Tobacco

“Bliss point,” a term used by the food industry, refers to the levels of salt, sugar, and fat that the brain perceives as “just right” and that make a food irresistible to our taste buds. When we eat a food that satisfies our bliss point, the brain’s hedonic pathway is activated, releasing a surge of dopamine that reinforces the behavior.

“That dopamine rush is what drives us to crave the food again and again,” says Laura Schmidt, PhD, MSW, MPH, professor of health policy at the University of California, San Francisco. “The dopamine-driven reward system in the brain responds more quickly to sugars than [to] nicotine.”

In the 1980s, when Big Tobacco was facing increased federal regulation, tobacco companies decided to diversify into food products. Within the decade, Philip Morris bought and consolidated General Foods and Kraft, which included household names like Oscar Mayer, Jell-O, and Post. R. J. Reynolds purchased Nabisco and its blockbuster hits Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, and Fig Newtons. “They took product ­development and marketing tools that worked for cigarettes and ­applied them to food,” Schmidt says.

“[Big Tobacco] took product ­development and marketing tools that worked for cigarettes and ­applied them to food.”

Beyond flavor, a food’s color, packaging, and texture ­— even the sound it makes — are all engineered to cue cravings. Consider the sharp, crisp pop you hear when opening a can of soda and how your brain anticipates that first cold, bubbly sip.

“Companies realized they could get their food’s color, flavor, and even packaging linked to the moment when the brain’s reward system kicks in,” she says.

Schmidt spent years sifting through the 19 million internal documents released by Big Tobacco as part of a legal settlement in the 1990s. She learned that tobacco companies had created sophisticated tools to measure people’s response to flavors, colors, and additives in cigarettes, and then applied that same knowledge to making food more pleasurable.

“That’s the word they used — pleasurable,” she notes. “It comes straight out of many decades of making cigarettes more pleasurable to smoke.”

By 1989, Philip Morris’s Kraft General Foods was the largest food company in the world. And from the late 1980s until the early 21st century, Big Tobacco continued to influence the food industry. In 2024, a study published in the journal Addiction found that foods once produced by Big Tobacco were up to 80 percent more likely to be hyperpalatable compared with products from non­tobacco companies.

Even after tobacco companies sold their food subsidiaries, in the early 2000s, the number of hyperpalatable food products available in the United States climbed another 7 percent. “The market became saturated as other food companies likely raced to catch up,” Fazzino explains.

Mapping Big Tobacco’s involvement in cooking up hyperpalatable products was a light-bulb moment for Fazzino in understanding the industrial palate: “It brought me full circle back to the addiction realm.”

These days, Fazzino is researching what threshold of salt, sugar, fat, and carbohydrates in various foods spurs addictive behaviors. “If I can take a heavy-hitting HPF like potato chips and test if dropping sodium below a certain threshold reduces its addictive nature, that’s a start,” she says. “It could be a harm-reduction approach similar to what worked with tobacco.”

5 Ways to Reclaim your palate

Many of us have grown accustomed to living in a hyperpalatable world and have perhaps even acquired a preference for artificial flavors and ingredients. Mental health nutritionist David Wiss, PhD, RDN, IFMCP, saw this in real life when his toddler tasted processed food for the first time. “As soon as her brain registered the reward of hyperpalatable foods, there was an expectancy that made regular food taste boring,” he says.

But whole foods aren’t boring. With a little awareness and creativity, you can wrest your palate back from the food industry. Wiss shares these tips.

( 1 )

SWAP FOODS STRATEGICALLY. Because hyperpalatable foods are calorically dense, swapping them for low-calorie fare can leave the body feeling undernourished, says Wiss. “If the brain senses too big of a dopamine drop, it interprets a threat and intensifies the cravings.”

Instead, he advises, keep yourself nourished with minimally processed, calorically dense foods. For example, add an avocado to your salad, top your fruit with nut butter, and opt for full-fat dairy.

( 2 )

ENGAGE YOUR SENSES. Your brain is drawn to a food’s sensory pleasures. Consider Peanut M&M’s: The ­colorful shell makes a satisfying crackle when you bite into it; your teeth sink through the sweet chocolatey interior before crunching into a salty peanut.

“It’s important to re-create sensory ­effects,” Wiss says. At home, add texture to yogurt with crushed macadamia nuts and blueberries, or sprinkle pumpkin seeds on an omelet or grain bowl. Improve the visual appeal of a meal by topping your plate with crumbled feta, a swirl of hot sauce, or a sprinkle of microgreens. (Visual appeal counts for a lot. See “Feast Your Eyes: The Importance of Your Meal’s Visual Appeal” for more.)

( 3 )

REDISCOVER CHEWING. Many hyperpalatable foods are designed to melt in your mouth, making it difficult for the brain to track how much you’ve eaten. Chewing is a key part of the cascade of healthy digestion and satiety signals. Look for whole foods that give your jaw a workout, like nuts, apples, or steel-cut oats — and chew them thoroughly.

“The goal is to have favorable bidirectional communication ­between the gut and the brain, and that’s what hyperpalatable foods override,” Wiss says. “You need to be able to trust your hunger and satiety cues.”

( 4 )

RELEASE PERFECTIONISM. Wiss tells his clients not to get caught up in “being on or off the wagon.” Instead, move at your own pace, even if it means using hyperpalatable foods as a bridge to healthier choices.

If you find salads inedible, for instance, crunch up a small bag of your favorite chips and pour the crumbs over your bowl of greens. The next day, he says, maybe use half the bag of chips, and then use less over time. “Tapering is key.”

( 5 )

FIND YOUR OWN BLISS. Search for whole foods or recipes that scratch your bliss-point itch. These bliss-point doppelgängers don’t have to be complicated. “If you stop and pay attention, a slice of cool tropical fruit can be pure bliss on a hot summer day,” Wiss explains.

Plus, food can be a catalyst for other feel-good hormones. Serotonin, for example, is activated by a sense of purpose and meaning. That can come from sharing a meal with people you care about, having a heartfelt conversation over the dinner table, or helping to prepare food or clean up, he adds. “It’s not just the brain but the terrain — the human — that matters.”

(Experience mindful eating with Jon Kabat-Zinn’s raisin practice — a simple way to slow down, tune in, and savor the moment.)

This article originally appeared as “The Lure of Hyperpalatable Food” in the March/April 2026 issue of Experience Life.