The Draw is Real : Study says junk foods are highly addictive

It’s long been suspected that chocolate, pizza and French fries are more than just tasty and a new study from the University of Michigan has etched in the tomes of science that these foods can trigger addictive-like eating behavior. One thing they all have in common is that they’ve been highly processed, meaning that they’ve been touched up with extra fat, refined carbohydrates from white flour and added sugar, among other things.

If properties of some foods are associated with addictive eating for some people, this may impact nutrition guidelines, as well as public policy initiatives such as marketing these foods to children.

Erica Schulte, a UM psychology doctoral student

Of the 35 food items researched, 18 of them qualify as “highly processed,” such as cake, chocolate, pizza and chips, whereas the remaining 17 were unprocessed items such as bananas, carrots and nuts. Overall the food items each could be categorized as high in fat and refined carbohydrates; low in both; or high in one but not the other. Chocolate topped the list as the most addictive of the 35 food items. It was followed by ice cream, French fries, pizza, cookies, chips and cake, in that order. The 15 most addictive of the 35 food items were all processed, and the 16th item on the list was cheese, the first unprocessed item. Least addictive of the food items were beans without sauce, followed by broccoli, plain cucumber, water, brown rice, carrots, bananas and salmon in that order.

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