As previously noted, Dr. Chris van Tulleken not only resents the omnipresence of food products designed to be addictive, but calls out the brazenness of manufacturers who actually go ahead and build advertising campaigns based on that fact. Dr. Chris and his brother (also a doctor) have characterized their fellow British citizens as a nation of lab rats who happily scarf down whatever they are offered by the immoral tycoons who run the food business.

Dr. Xand van Tulleken spent much of his life being at least 30 pounds heavier than his brother. Although they are identical twins, they always responded differently to stress and diverged into different eating patterns before going on to devote large portions of their professional lives to examining those differences.

On the physical side, the twins have “all the major known genetic risk factors for obesity.” But that is the least of the problems. Dr. Chris confesses that they enable each other in binge behavior.

An interesting footnote: Apparently, many romantic relationships and even friendships contain the same unhealthy undercurrent. One person, or both, will encourage the other’s fat-inducing habits, in hopes that their partner or friend will blimp up enough to appear unattractive to a potential rival.

When Dr. Xand spent time in the United States for professional reasons, he could not help but notice that the portions served in restaurants were bigger than in Britain, and that some of the ingredients were unsettlingly unfamiliar.

The brothers started a podcast, experienced and examined the horrible mental and physical results of untrammeled eating, and speculated about the differences between behavioral addiction and any other kind.

Throughout their various experiences and experiments, by the time they were 42, both men had noticed something: Additional weight can bring on the same unattractive results as chronological age, only much sooner. When Dr. Chris experimented with a diet of mainly hyper-processed foods, he gained 14 pounds in a month, and contemplated with dismay the fact that a human is perfectly capable of gaining the same amount each month for a year. One reaction was horror at the realization of how quickly such an experiment could veer out of control.

Despite being a professional with a specific clinical purpose in mind, he quickly lost the ability to put down the fork, even when what it shoved into his mouth stopped being enjoyable and became almost repellent. He says,

My diet has linked up the reward centers of my brain with the areas that drive repetitive automatic behavior, so eating ultra-processed food has become something my brain simply tells me to do without me even wanting it.

The whole experience convinced him that ultra-processed food consumption could and should be regarded as a powerful addiction.

We are looking at the transcript of the TEDx talk delivered by Dr. Chris van Tulleken in 2024, entitled “Here’s Why You’re Addicted to Ultra-Processed Food.” He points out two problems with his own work’s title and the assumptions behind it. One: No actual addictive molecules seem to have been found in food, so far. But that awkward fact is easily bypassed, due to wide acceptance that there exist both substance addiction and behavioral addiction. An individual’s problem can belong to one category or the other or, in some cases, both.

His other sticking point, however, is quoted here:

Some people think that sugar is addictive, but most of us can sit with a bowl of sugar on the table, and we don’t find ourselves compulsively eating it with a spoon. No one does that.

Apparently, at least one person does, or did. That anecdote describes powdered confectioner’s sugar, which can be quite palatable stirred up with just a bit of water or milk. Also delicious is a bowl of soft, fluffy brown sugar, which can be eaten with a spoon. It starts out with a textured “mouth feel,” then melts into unalloyed sweetness, without the annoying angularity of white sugar crystals. (Don’t ask me how I know.)

Back to Dr. van Tulleken’s TEDx talk:

Are there any foods that cause you physical, social, or psychological problems, but you keep eating them anyway? Have you ever tried and failed to stop eating these foods? I want you to think about what the food is, if you’re answering yes. Think about the brand. Do you ever feel like you’re not in control when you’re eating them? Do you ever have cravings for those foods, and do you ever feel guilt?

For the curious, another, more extensive addiction probability assessment quiz can be found here.

Overall, Dr. van Tulleken’s TEDx address provides a detailed overview of the food addiction threat, and some useful math: “Of people who try cocaine or alcohol, between 10% and 20% of them develop an addiction.” Still, considering how harmful those addictions could potentially be, one out of 10 isn’t horrible; and really, even one out of five is nowhere near as bad as it could be. But:

We think, according to the best data at the moment, that around 14% of adults live with an addicted relationship to ultra-processed food products. And terrifyingly, we think it’s about 12% in children. We also know the risk factors for that kind of addiction, they’re the same, whether we’re talking about cocaine, alcohol, tobacco, or ultra-processed food.

If that doesn’t send a shiver down our spine, it probably ought to.

Written by Pat Hartman. First published September 3, 2026.

Sources:

“Here’s Why You’re Addicted to Ultra-Processed Food: Chris van Tulleken,” SingjuPost.com, January 22, 2014.

“Source: “Am I a Food Addict?,” FoodAddicts.org, undated.

Image Copyright: Mohamed_hassan/Pixabay.