Big tobacco hooked us on ultra-processed foods. It might teach us how to cut back

For decades, major tobacco companies invested heavily in honing marketing strategies, flavor engineering, and processing technologies to create highly addictive cigarettes. These sophisticated methods were designed to maximize consumer engagement and loyalty. However, a significant shift occurred in the 1980s when these tobacco giants began aggressively expanding into the manufactured food sector, acquiring some of the largest food firms, such as Philip Morris purchasing Kraft General Foods and RJ Reynolds owning Nabisco. This period saw a substantial surge in ultra-processed food production across the U.S.

Professor Laura Schmidt, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, along with dozens of other academics, has meticulously examined old tobacco company archives. Their findings, published in a special series of papers in the American Journal of Public Health, reveal a deliberate transfer of knowledge. Tobacco firms had spent years amassing research on chemical additives to enhance the pleasure and addictive properties of nicotine. Schmidt asserts that the core technology used to optimize the addictive characteristics of nicotine, involving added sugar and artificial flavorings, was directly applied to ultra-processed food development. This explains how foods like salty chips, sugary sodas, and prepackaged meals became major drivers of poor health, exhibiting addictive characteristics.

The research illustrates specific examples, such as the development of Lunchables by Philip Morris, where flavor technologies previously used to make lower-nicotine cigarettes more palatable were applied to create lower-fat cheeses and processed meats. Furthermore, tobacco's influence extended to marketing, with concepts like 'king-size' originating from cigarette advertising and the strategy of 'light' cigarettes being adapted for 'light' or 'reduced' food products to retain health-conscious customers. Tera Fazzino's research indicates that during the period of tobacco ownership, the market was saturated with hyper-palatable ultra-processed foods – products with unnaturally high combinations of fat, sugar, sodium, and carbohydrates that activate the brain's reward system, making them incredibly difficult to stop eating. The consensus among researchers is that the strategies forged during the 'war on tobacco' provide a powerful blueprint for public health interventions aimed at curbing the over-consumption of these intentionally developed, health-damaging foods.