Tobacco Industry’s Influence on Processed Foods

🧠 It's Not Just You

I recently went down a rabbit hole after hearing Sal from Mind Pump talk about the history of processed foods. What I learned made me rethink a lot of things—not just about food, but about how we’ve all been marketed to for decades.

Turns out, the same companies that once got people hooked on cigarettes quietly pivoted into food. When public pressure started rising around tobacco, giants like Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds bought up major food brands—Kraft, Nabisco, General Foods—and brought their addiction-driven science with them.

No exaggeration.

They hired scientists to figure out how to make food as irresistible as cigarettes. And they nailed it.

🍩 The “Bliss Point” Effect

They discovered what’s now called the bliss point—that magical mix of sugar, salt, and fat that hits your brain's reward system like a slot machine.

They made foods that didn’t just taste good—they made them impossible to stop eating, even when you're full. Now these products are everywhere. And they’re not food in the traditional sense—they’re products, made to drive consumption.

📚 Want the Truth?

If you’re curious (or sceptical), have little look at these:

• 📰 Washington Post (2023) – “Many of today’s unhealthy foods were brought to you by Big Tobacco” https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/09/19/addiction-foods-hyperpalatable-tobacco/#

• 📚 NIH Study in Cell Metabolism (2019) – People ate 500+ extra calories per day on an ultra-processed diet, compared to unprocessed—even when calories and macros were matched. https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(19)30248-7 

• 📊 BMJ Umbrella Review (2023) – Ultra-processed food consumption is linked to over 30 health issues, including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression, and early death.Link https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2023-076058

🔑 So What Can You Do?

You don’t need to cut everything out or live off salads forever.

But once you know what’s actually going on, it makes a difference. You start making choices because you want to—not because some billion-pound food industry designed it that way.

Small shifts matter:

• Cook a little more.

• Read a label or two.

• Get curious, not guilty.

This stuff isn’t about perfection—it’s about awareness.

Oh, one app I recommend for this is 'Yuka'. Download it and let me know what you think. It scans food and cosmetic product barcodes to rate their health impact. It gives a score out of 100 and explains if the product contains harmful additives, too much sugar, salt, saturated fat, etc.