Chicago native Jeffrey Odwazny says he has been addicted to ultraprocessed food since he was a child.
鈥淚 was driven to eat and eat and eat, and while I would overeat healthy food, what really got me were the candies, the cakes, the pies, the ice cream,鈥 said the 54-year-old former warehouse supervisor.
鈥淚 really gravitated towards the sugary ultraprocessed foods 鈥 it was like a physical drive, I had to have it,鈥 he said. 鈥淢y parents would find hefty bags full of candy wrappers hidden in my closet. I would steal things from stores as a kid and later as an adult.鈥
Some 12 per cent of the nearly 73 million children and adolescents in the United States today struggle with a similar food addiction, . To be diagnosed, children must meet criteria as stringent as any for alcohol use disorder or other addictions.
鈥淜ids are losing control and eating to the point where they feel physically ill,鈥 said Ashley Gearhardt, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who conducted the research and developed the Yale addiction scale.
鈥淭hey have intense cravings and may be sneaking, stealing or hiding ultraprocessed foods,鈥 Gearhardt said. 鈥淭hey may stop going out with friends or doing other activities they used to enjoy in order to stay at home and eat, or they feel too sluggish from overeating to participate in other activities.鈥
Her research also shows about 14 per cent of adults are clinically addicted to food, predominantly ultraprocessed foods with higher levels of sugar, salt, fat and additives.
For comparison, 10.5 per cent of Americans age 12 or older were diagnosed with alcohol use disorder in 2022, according to the .
While many people addicted to food will say that their symptoms began to worsen significantly in adolescence, some recall a childhood focused on ultraprocessed food.
鈥淏y age two or three, children are likely eating more ultraprocessed foods in any given day than a fruit or vegetable, especially if they鈥檙e poor and don鈥檛 have enough money in their family to have enough quality food to eat,鈥 Gearhardt said. 鈥淯ltraprocessed foods are cheap and literally everywhere, so this is also a social justice issue.鈥
An addiction to ultraprocessed foods can highjack a young brain鈥檚 reward circuitry, putting the primitive 鈥渞eptilian brain,鈥 or amygdala, in charge 鈥 thus bypassing the prefrontal cortex where rational decision-making occurs, said Los Angeles registered dietitian nutritionist David Wiss, who specializes in treating food addiction.
鈥淯ltraprocessed food addiction also teaches the young brain what to expect from food, like how much sugar reward one should get from eating a snack,鈥 said Wiss, which makes healthier options less appealing.
鈥淚t鈥檚 almost virtually impossible for a child, or even a 14- or 15-year-old, to be able to override all of this biology for very long,鈥 he added.
The Institute of Food Technologists, an association of food professionals and technologists, does not agree with the research on ultraprocessed food addiction.
鈥淲hile there is growing concern that some foods may be addictive for certain sub-populations including children, there is currently no scientific consensus to support that concern,鈥 said IFT鈥檚 chief science and technology officer, Bryan Hitchcock, in an email.
Food addiction is also not recognized by the World Health Organization鈥檚 International Classification of Diseases and is a subject of debate in the scientific community, according to the International Food and Beverage Alliance, an industry association.
鈥淪ome believe markers of food addiction indicate eating disorders rather than substance use disorders,鈥 said IFBA鈥檚 secretary-general, Rocco Renaldi, in an email.
Traumatic experiences in early childhood helped to trigger and nurture his addiction to ultraprocessed foods, Odwazny said.
鈥淥ne of my earliest memories is being in a high chair with ashtrays going over my head and plates smashing into the walls,鈥 Odwazny said. 鈥淚nstead of saying, 鈥業鈥檓 sorry鈥 or showing love, my family would feed me.鈥
At first, he said his parents thought his overeating was funny and began calling him names such as 鈥渢he creeper鈥 when he would escape from his crib in the night to raid the refrigerator. As he grew, however, Odwazny鈥檚 parents began to put locks on the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets. He was often ashamed of his eating.
鈥淭here was a lot of name-calling. I was nicknamed everything from butterball to fat ass and worse,鈥 he said. 鈥淵ou know the dads of some kids would call, 鈥楬ey, buddy or pal,鈥 but my dad used to call me 鈥榯he Orca.鈥欌
Despite his preoccupation with food, Odwazny was careful not to overeat in front of strangers as he grew up. Instead, when faced at a party with trigger foods such as chocolate-covered peanut butter cups, he would leave to buy that specific food.
鈥淚 would go to one store until I bought it all out, and then I would have to travel to another store,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 would buy two or three family-size bags, and I would eat so much in one sitting that I would be in a fog. Sugary food is a drug for me.鈥
The disorder took over his life. Before one meal of highly processed food was over, he was thinking about where to find the next. By 2016, his food addiction was at its worst.
鈥淚 would steal food or eat things that were burnt or spoiled,鈥 he said. 鈥淚鈥檝e often gotten sick and had to go to the hospital. In fact, this disorder has almost killed me several times.鈥
Eating higher amounts of ultraprocessed food raises the risk of obesity and the development of chronic conditions, including , , , and .
Still, many people find it hard to stop eating overly processed convenience foods such as hot dogs, French fries, crackers, frozen pizza, sausages, sodas, doughnuts, candy and ice cream.
Ultraprocessed foods often contain flavours, different textures and 鈥渁dditives whose function is to make the final product palatable or more appealing,鈥 according to the .
Such foods are designed to maximize levels of the feel-good hormone dopamine in the brain, experts say. Added fats increase calories and improve the 鈥渕outhfeel鈥 that makes food pleasing. Texture plays a role as well.
鈥淔oods that melt in the mouth and are smooth or creamy, or alternatively, foods with crunch, can create an immediate neurochemical reward,鈥 Wiss said. 鈥淎 lot of food science goes into this and lot of research and development by manufacturers.鈥
Copious amounts of salt improve flavour. Sugar is so powerful that it鈥檚 used as a replacement for pain medication for minor surgeries in babies: 鈥淔or circumcisions or shots, they鈥檒l give babies a dose of sugar because it releases opioids in the brain and dulls pain,鈥 Gearhardt said.
In fact, animal studies suggest sugar levels in ultraprocessed foods may be as addictive to the brain as alcohol or tobacco, she said.
鈥淭hese are really invasive studies, with wires in the brain,鈥 Gearhardt said. 鈥淪ugar creates the same amount of dopamine release that mimics what you see with nicotine and ethanol 鈥 around 150 per cent to 200 per cent above baseline.
鈥淐ocaine is much more addictive, between 1,000 per cent and 2,000 per cent above baseline,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut animals still often choose a sweet taste over cocaine.鈥
The makers of ultraprocessed food strive to meet this dopamine 鈥渂liss point鈥 via secret, proprietary mixtures of sugar, fat, salt and flavour additives that experts say trigger the basest of our animal instincts 鈥 the need for survival.
鈥淚f there is a really high-value meal in front of you, something rich and fatty that has a lot of calories in it, the brain is set up to say, 鈥楪o ahead and eat it,鈥 even if you are full because our ancestors had no guarantee they would find food the next day,鈥 said appetite specialist Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
The brain is also wired to remember and crave the pleasurable flavor of a food and its lifesaving calories in a process similar to Pavlovian, or classical conditioning, said DiFeliceantonio, who is also associate director of the Center for Health Behaviors Research at Virginia Tech.
鈥淚t鈥檚 what we all learned in Psychology 101, right? Light comes on; food drops; dog salivates,鈥 she said.
How ultraprocessed foods are made may also contribute to addiction, experts say. Due to manufacturing methods that break down cell structures within foods 鈥 in essence predigesting the food 鈥 many ultraprocessed foods pass rapidly through the human gastrointestinal tract.
That鈥檚 confusing to a digestive system designed to slowly break down whole foods that have been torn and chewed, and to a brain that鈥檚 used to getting a slow trickle of reward.
With ultraprocessed foods, the brain receives surges of delight almost as quickly as the food is eaten, DiFeliceantonio said.
鈥淭he majority of usable calories, boosted by intense flavours from whatever additives are in there, are quickly dumped into the upper intestine, sending signals to the brain all at once,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 happening really rapidly, and it鈥檚 happening really strongly.鈥
The result, experts say, is a brain that ultraprocessed calories as filling. That, along with the rush of dopamine, may be a reason the brain has trouble saying, 鈥淗alt!鈥 to ultraprocessed foods.
鈥淭hese foods appear to leave our brain in a state of perpetual vulnerability to rewarding substances and never feeling nourished or satiated,鈥 Gearhardt said.
Nutrition is another issue. Ultraprocessed foods are often missing critical nutrients the body needs, which are especially important during childhood when the brain and body are growing.
鈥淲hat is left after all the high heat and manipulation needed to create the ultraprocessed foods are the macronutrients 鈥 the calories, the carbohydrates, the fats and sometimes a little protein,鈥 Wiss said.
鈥淢icronutrients are typically destroyed, which include the vitamins, minerals and antioxidant compounds that are known to confer health benefits,鈥 he said. 鈥淐hildren who eat a lot of ultraprocessed foods could well be malnourished.鈥
According to the International Food and Beverage Alliance, however, there is no clear, objective, reliable or scientifically validated definition for 鈥渦ltraprocessed鈥 food.
鈥淚t is a catch-all, non-scientific concept that doesn鈥檛 adequately account for nutritional differences in products: the scientific evidence to date, and agreed upon by many authorities internationally, is that it is ultimately the nutritional composition of foods, and of an individual鈥檚 diet, that matters,鈥 said the IFBA鈥檚 Renaldi.
Overcoming his addiction to food 鈥 and later alcohol 鈥 has been a difficult journey for Odwazny. In an attempt to control his eating, he underwent two bariatric surgeries that typically have a high success rate.
鈥淓ach time I would pray, 鈥楶lease be it, please make this the answer.鈥 But I would ultimately start binging on ultraprocessed foods,鈥 Odwazny said.
鈥淭hose surgeries were operating on the wrong part of my body, my stomach, but my eating disorder is right here,鈥 he said, tapping his head.
Miserable and so overweight he could no longer do his job, Odwazny went on short-term disability and checked into rehab for a binge-eating disorder. That treatment plan didn鈥檛 work, so he tried another, then another.
Finally, he found a program that combined traditional treatment for binge-eating disorder with one for food addiction. Listening to other patients and staff speak about their own issues with food was life-changing, Odwazny said.
鈥淥ur disease wants us to be separate,鈥 he said. 鈥淥ur disease wants us to be not part of something else, because we want to isolate and think that we鈥檙e the only ones. But when I heard the staff and some of the doctors talk about their own addictions, I knew the people that were treating me finally understood.鈥
A program that incorporates interventions for food addiction with treatment for restrictive eating disorders is relatively new and somewhat controversial, said food addiction specialist Dr. Kimberly Dennis, who is co-founder, CEO and chief medical officer at SunCloud Health in Chicago, where Odwazny is in treatment.
鈥淭reatment for a restrictive eating disorder, like binge eating or bulimia, focuses on helping the person overcome any aversion to food,鈥 said Dennis, who is also a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine.
鈥淎s soon as a person says, 鈥業 can鈥檛 safely eat that candy,鈥 the eating disorder therapist says, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 just the eating disorder talking, all foods are fine, and nothing is off-limits.鈥欌
Such treatment is a gold standard for someone who is avoiding food and malnourished, said Dennis, who is in recovery for food addiction and binge-eating disorder. 鈥淪o a doughnut for breakfast, cupcake with lunch, and cookies as an afternoon snack would be a really good challenge for that person.鈥
However, if that person also has a food addiction, the approach may cause them to quit treatment, she said. 鈥淭heir experience with eating that cupcake would be more like, 鈥業 feel really triggered and worried that if I did this at home, I would be through the whole box of cupcakes by now.鈥欌
Today, Odwazny is in recovery and is studying to become a certified alcohol and drug counsellor in the Chicago area. He credits much of his success to his wife, Kimmy, whom he met during the COVID-19 pandemic while attending support groups at SunCloud.
鈥淢y wife is also in the program, so we both know our food plans. My wife and I have our meals together 鈥 there鈥檚 no sneaking, there鈥檚 no hiding. I don鈥檛 binge, but there are also certain foods that I don鈥檛 eat,鈥 he said.
鈥淏efore I was in recovery, I never could imagine I would have such a beautiful wife that loves me, because no one loved me. Today I鈥檓 free.鈥
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