Summary
Overview
Professor Ashley Gearhart, a clinical psychologist from the University of Michigan, discusses the science of food addiction, drawing compelling parallels between tobacco and ultra-processed foods. She explains how the same companies, technologies, and even flavor molecules used in cigarettes are now employed in creating addictive food products. Gearhart details her pioneering work developing the Yale Food Addiction Scale and advocates for formal recognition of food addiction as a clinical diagnosis, while offering compassionate, practical advice for those struggling with ultra-processed foods.
Ashley Gearhart's Journey into Food Addiction Research
Professor Gearhart's career began when she noticed a critical gap in addiction research while studying alcohol addiction at Yale. Working in both an alcohol research lab and a clinic with bariatric surgery patients, she observed people describing their relationship with certain foods using classic addiction language. This disconnect between what patients experienced and what the medical establishment acknowledged led her to investigate whether highly processed foods could be genuinely addictive, despite widespread resistance to this idea.
- Gearhart initially studied alcohol addiction at Yale University in the simulated bar lab
- She noticed clinic patients preparing for bariatric surgery described their food relationships using addiction language
- Patients were told to 'try harder' and use 'more willpower' rather than being treated for addiction
- She began investigating parallels between fermented grapes (alcohol) and hedonically curated processed foods like donuts
" I was seeing people in the clinic as a clinical psychologist who had binge eating and were getting ready to undergo bariatric surgery. And they were just using all the language of addiction and describing their relationship with a very specific class of hyper rewarding processed foods. "
" Your career started because you were looking at an entire field of health and psychology and going, you seem to be missing one of the biggest problems in the world. "
Historical Patterns: How We Fail to Recognize Addiction
Drawing on addiction history, Gearhart reveals that society has repeatedly failed to identify addictive substances when they're first introduced. Heroin wasn't initially recognized as addictive because it was developed to treat morphine addiction. Cocaine wasn't seen as addictive because it treated heroin addiction. Even cigarettes weren't considered addictive into the 2000s, with arguments claiming they couldn't be addictive because they weren't intoxicating and lacked physical withdrawal. When society misses the role of the substance, it focuses on individual deficits and demands people 'try harder'—an approach that never works.
- Heroin wasn't initially recognized as addictive because it was developed as a morphine treatment
- Cocaine wasn't thought to be addictive as it was developed as a heroin treatment
- Articles into the 2000s argued cigarettes weren't addictive due to lack of intoxication and physical withdrawal
- When we miss the substance's role, we blame individuals and their deficits
" We're bad at identifying addictive substances like we didn't think heroin was addictive for a while because it was developed as a treatment for morphine. And then we didn't think cocaine was addictive because it was developed as a treatment for heroin. "
" When we're missing it, when we don't realize the role of the substance, we just focus on the individual and their deficits and how they should be trying harder. "
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