Reflections on Hyperpalatable Foods

Even if you’ve never heard the term “hyperpalatable food”, you probably know about these kinds of foods. They’re the ones that have been designed to taste so good that you have a hard time stopping once you start eating them. They also don’t make you feel full very quickly, even though they have a lot of calories.

I began thinking about these types of foods, and my own journey with them, after listening to an episode of Trevor Noah’s podcast that featured an interview with nutritionist Dr. Jessica Knurick. Among other things, they discussed the challenge of hyperpalatable foods.

Once you start, you can’t stop

I remember the days when I felt the allure of hyperpalatable foods. These are things like chips, cheeseburgers, pizza, etc. – foods that combine salt, fat, sugar, and artificial flavors in such a way that they’re designed to trigger a dopamine response in your brain. The response makes you feel good, which encourages you to continue that activity.

If you’ve ever sat down with a bag of chips or some other similar food, and then suddenly realized you’d eaten the whole thing, you’ve experienced this.

That used to happen with me a lot, especially in college. We only had so many food options on campus, and most of them didn’t have particularly nutritious foods. We had Pizza Hut and Burger King, places where you could get snacks and soda, and other places with lots of fried options.

That made it very easy to fall into the trap of these hyperpalatable foods. It’s also why, even after graduation, I kept eating those foods for quite a while. I wanted that dopamine hit again and again.

Breaking the cycle

It’s easy to demonize these kinds of foods, but as Dr. Knurick pointed out, you don’t have to cut them out completely. She explained that the reason these foods don’t fill you up is that they usually don’t have much fiber or protein.

So, one way to approach this is to have a food that does have fiber or protein, along with a small amount of the hyperpalatable food. For example, instead of just eating a bag of chips, have some beans and rice, or chicken, and maybe a piece of fruit. That way, you still get the flavor of the hyperpalatable food, but you’ll be less likely to overdo it since you’ll have something else filling you up.

As I recall, this is similar to the approach I took. I knew that trying to completely cut out sweets, chips, and fried foods would only make me want them more, so instead I tried to cut back on them. At the same time, I tried to add other foods with higher nutritional content.

Changed taste

But after enough time, something funny happened. I found that I didn’t even want those foods anymore, or at least not much. Even though they tasted good, having too much of them didn’t make me feel good, and that was more important to me.

These days, I don’t often have these hyperpalatable foods. I can also buy Girl Scout cookies and have just one or two a day, and if I put them in the freezer, I can forget about them. It’s been ages since I’ve had pizza, for example, or chicken tenders and french fries, even though I used to have them all the time. After all, it’s hard to get just a few frie, or a single chicken tender, and that’s about all I’d want. I can smell pizza or fries and appreciate that smell without having the food.

I think some people assume this takes tremendous willpower on my part. The truth is, it doesn’t. I’ve simply learned to pay attention to how I feel when eating, and I prefer how I feel after eating more nutritious foods most of the time.

And I know I’m not the only one because I’ve met other people who have similarly changed tastes. For example, a friend of mine chooses not to have anything at all at places that only serve these hyperpalatable foods because she doesn’t feel good afterward.

Food choice is possible

When you’re used to eating lots of these hyperpalatable foods, it may feel like it’s impossible to eat differently. I know I had a hard time imagining letting go of those foods in earlier years.

That’s why, if you want to start making different food choices, it’s likely easier to make that change gradually. Try to cut back a little at a time on those foods and add in other things that will fill you up and provide more nutrients.

And remember, too, that hyperpalatable foods aren’t “bad”, nor are you a bad person for eating them. They taste really good, so it makes sense that a lot of people like them and eat them a lot.

But if you make some changes, you may find that you also start to prefer more balance in your meals, and the hyperpalatable foods will lose much of their allure.