Certain foods can cause the most "addictive-like eating behaviors," studies have found. Dietitians explain why some foods keep us wanting to eat more.
Many people who take a GLP-1 weight-loss drug say that it takes the medication to finally stop their preoccupation with food, often called food noise.
Eating has always been a pleasure, but these cravings seem to be especially powerful in the modern diet. They can come from foods designed to keep us eating more, dietitians warn.
The biggest culprit is the highly palatable, ultraprocessed food stripped of fiber and pumped with sugar, salt and fat, plus extra ingredients like preservatives and thickeners, says Lisa Young, Ph.D., a registered dietitian and adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University.
Think chips, cookies, candy, frozen pizza and fast food.
"It's thought that the sugar, fat and salt might stimulate the brain's reward center -- somewhat similar to substances that are addictive," Young, the author of "Finally Full, Finally Slim," tells TODAY.com.
"No one has a food addiction to apples. But we do know that those ultraprocessed foods could really have that addictive quality."
These foods are easily accessible, ready to eat and very dense in calories, adds Wesley McWhorter, a registered dietitian in Houston, Texas, and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
"They're made to be very craveable," McWhorter, who has a doctorate of public health, tells TODAY.com. "That can lead to people wanting more and more of them."
When healthy adult volunteers were served either ultraprocessed or unprocessed meals and ate as much as they wanted, they ate 500 calories more per day on the ultraprocessed diet, a National Institutes of Health study found.
They also ate faster and gained weight.
"We're not really sure 100% yet what's going on," Young says.
Ultraprocessed foods are made using industrial processes, have little or no trace of whole food, and include flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers and other additives.
"It's thought that it has something to do with the combination of all these components," she says.
So eating ice cream you make at home with cream, milk and sugar appears to come with a smaller risk of overeating than consuming store-bought ice cream with "100 ingredients," Young adds.
"These ultraprocessed, highly rewarding foods have way more in common with a cigarette than they do with an apple or an orange or black beans," Ashley Gearhardt, Ph.D., a psychologist who studies overeating at the University of Michigan, told the National Institutes of Health.
One of her studies found pizza, chocolate, chips, cookies, ice cream and french fries were among foods that triggered the most "addictive-like eating behaviors."
There's debate over whether food is addictive, but eating ultraprocessed foods may lead to a compulsive habit, Gearhardt said. There's a broad variety of foods that could be addictive, McWhorter notes.
Here are four types of foods that can trigger powerful cravings:
This category covers ultraprocessed foods such as potato chips and other salty snacks, store-bought cookies, mass-produced cakes, donuts, candy bars, fast food, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and frozen pizza.
"The biggest bang for your buck, in a bad way, is the combination of the sugar, fat and salt," Young says.
These foods usually come with a long list of ingredients you won't recognize.
This category includes soda, juices -- which can be mostly water with added sugars like high-fructose corn syrup -- jellybeans and other candy.
"If you have a very high sugar product, we as humans want that," McWhorter notes.
"If you eat an apple, it has fiber and other things to block that sugar absorption. So when you take that sugar out of said product and you straight line it, it's going to be a little more addictive to us."
This category includes ice cream, french fries, fast food burgers and fried foods.
"Not that fat is bad for you, but the extra high amount of it is the issue," McWhorter says.
"Avocado is naturally high in fat, but you're not going to eat six avocados. But you may eat a bag of chips or other things that are very high in fat."
Nuts are also naturally high in fat, but come with fiber and protein, so that's a healthy combination, Young notes.
Cheese is high in fat, but it's a very complex food, and it's high in protein so dietitians consider cheese healthy in moderation. Some headlines have claimed cheese is addictive, but that's not the case, experts say.
These are foods where the calories predominantly come from refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, crackers and sugary cereals that are stripped of fiber.
"Those could cause the spikes and the crashes in your blood sugar, and that could drive hunger and cravings very easily," Young says.
"That is one of the biggest problems in the U.S. -- we don't get enough fiber," McWhorter adds.
The dietitians had these tips:
Eat protein, fiber and healthy fat -- or at least two out of three -- at each meal, Young says. If you have white bread, put some nut butter on it, for example. "That helps keep blood sugar steady, and it can help keep the cravings at bay," she notes.
Don't buy problem foods. "If you bring it into your house, you'll probably eat it. If you don't bring it into your house, you're in really good shape," Young advises. Fill your fridge and pantry with whole, healthy foods that will fill you up.
Eat appropriate portions. "There's a way to eat chocolate responsibly and other sweets responsibly. The problem is we aren't," McWhorter says. "You might enjoy a nice crispy chip or a delicious french fry, but (when) that's your entire diet, that's a massive problem."
Be mindful when eating. Don't eat out of the container or the bag. Portion the food on a plate so you don't eat the entire package, he notes. Put the phone away, be present with your food, notice the flavor and really savor the taste, both dietitians advise.