Ultra-processed foods and the strategic manipulation of our evolved motivational tendencies

Consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is responsible for an increasing proportion of non-communicable diseases and premature mortality. Recognition of the commercial and social determinants of UPF consumption represents an important advance in public health, with implications for interventions that emphasize regulatory policies rather than individual motivation. However, it is important not to lose sight of the motivational mechanisms through which commercial and social determinants exert their effects on unhealthy behavior.

This commentary highlights "Big Food's" exploitation of psychological hedonism-a fundamental human motivational process-as the critical mechanism of UPF consumption, with disproportionate effects on historically marginalized communities. It is not mere availability of UPFs that is the problem. It is the intentional and strategic engineering of UPFs to appeal to the most basic human motivational system that drives our desire and consumption of UPFs. The framing of UPF consumption as the exploitation of natural human motivational tendencies has the potential for increasing the public's acceptance of food regulation policies.

In bolstering public support for UPF-regulation we should proliferate the following message: Just like Big Tobacco, Big Food strategically engineers UPFs to manipulate fundamental human motivational processes and amass profits at the expense of public health.