How Big Tobacco engineered our modern addiction to ultra-processed foods

Food & Drink · Published 28 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Why do we find it so hard to stop eating certain snacks? It isn't an accident of nature. In the 1960s, tobacco giants began applying their secret science of addiction to the food industry, creating a legacy of hyperpalatable products that now dominate our diets.

The shift began in 1963 when R.J. Reynolds, then one of the most profitable tobacco firms in the U.S., sought to diversify its business. They decided to apply their highly successful marketing strategies for brands like Camel and Winston to the food sector, starting with the acquisition of Hawaiian Punch. This move signaled a massive industrial pivot: using nicotine-honed expertise in pleasure and craving to sell chemically-engineered products.

Over the following decades, tobacco giants like Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds aggressively acquired major brands including Nabisco, Del Monte, 7UP, General Foods, and Kraft. By the mid-1980s, as these large food companies came under tobacco ownership, the production of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) scaled up dramatically across the American food supply. This era coincided with a sharp rise in national obesity rates.

Research by experts like Laura Schmidt reveals that tobacco companies deliberately used internal records and decades of research on chemical additives to make cigarettes more addictive. They then applied these same processing technologies and flavor engineering to create 'hyperpalatable' foods—products engineered with specific combinations of sugar, fat, and salt to maximize dopamine responses in the brain. These products were often specifically marketed to children and other vulnerable groups.

Today, ultra-processed foods like cookies, sodas, instant noodles, and fish sticks are responsible for a significant rise in chronic diseases such as diabetes. According to Schmidt, about 60% of the calories in the average American diet now come from these ultra-processed products. Because these items were intentionally designed using addiction modeling, researchers suggest that public health strategies used to fight tobacco may be necessary to curb our current over-consumption.

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