Some kids need more protection from ultra-processed food. Here's why
A MARTÃNEZ, HOST:
Children in the U.S. get on average nearly 70% of their daily calories from ultra-processed food. Eating too much of that is tied to health problems, including obesity, diabetes and depression. Scientists, though, say not all kids may respond to ultra-processed foods in the same way. Michaeleen Doucleff explains.
MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF, BYLINE: Ultra-processed foods contain ingredients you rarely find in your kitchen, like preservatives, additives and flavors. And there's a growing consensus among scientists that these foods can trigger people to overeat.
ASHLEY GEARHARDT: Incredibly powerful corporations that have poured millions of dollars into designing foods to maximize cravability.
DOUCLEFF: That's Ashley Gearhardt. She's a psychologist at the University of Michigan. She says ultra-processed foods can cause adults and children to eat even when they're not hungry and to keep eating after they're full.
GEARHARDT: Humans were doing a pretty darn good job eating for our needs before ultra-processed foods took off.
DOUCLEFF: These foods can override the signals in our brain that tell us when to stop eating. In recent years, scientists have found that some kids are more vulnerable to this response because they are born with what scientists call an...
GEARHARDT: Intense food reward drive.
DOUCLEFF: With a strong food reward drive, kids can regulate their eating with real food, but with ultra-processed food, they struggle. To understand this better, let's look at an example. Kerri Boutelle is a psychologist at the University of California San Diego. She knows two siblings with extremely different food reward drives.
KERRI BOUTELLE: If I give them each an ice cream cone - right? - the first one would eat half of it and put his down.
DOUCLEFF: This child has a lower food reward drive. With kids like this, ultra-processed foods don't have such a big impact on their eating.
BOUTELLE: They just eat to get full, and then they move on.
DOUCLEFF: But the other sibling would eat her ice cream very quickly and then reach over and eat the rest of her brother's. She has a strong food reward drive. Kids like this...
BOUTELLE: They want to eat all the time, and it doesn't matter if they're full, that kind of thing. And those kids are going to gain weight in today's environment.
DOUCLEFF: Where ultra-processed food is ubiquitous. Boutelle says a strong food reward drive isn't anybody's fault. It's largely genetic. But a lot of popular advice isn't going to work with these kids. For example, you can't keep a bunch of ultra-processed food in your house and then try to restrict how much a child can have.
BOUTELLE: This situation where we have 80 million cookies in the closet, but you can have half. That's really difficult for children, and it's setting them up for failure.
DOUCLEFF: Instead, Boutelle says it's more effective to try and keep ultra-processed food out of your home. And if you do buy it, limit the options to only a few.
BOUTELLE: We know from experimental studies that variety increases eating. You can have, like, three different kinds.
DOUCLEFF: And when she says three, she means, for example, one package of crackers, one box of granola bars and one bag of pretzels. That's it. Over at the University of Michigan, Ashley Gearhardt takes a similar strategy with her two boys. She keeps her home essentially free of ultra-processed foods, except for special occasions.
GEARHARDT: Like, oh, we're having a bunch of friends over. Sure, we'll order a bunch of crappy pizza. And we do not forbid ultra-processed foods at all, but our baseline is foundationally real food.
DOUCLEFF: This approach, she says, works even for her son, who has a strong food reward drive.
For NPR, I'm Michaeleen Doucleff.
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