Tobacco industry investments in the food industry have favored fatty, salty and sugary products

Researchers at the University of Kansas examined the tobacco industry's investments in the food sector from 1988 to 2001. By favoring fatty, salty and sugary products, cigarette companies actively contributed to the obesity epidemic affecting the United States.

Between the mid-1980s and the early 2000s, tobacco manufacturers invested massively in the United States in the agri-food sector, before selling off their assets in this sector en masse.

Using publicly available tobacco industry records, a team of researchers from the University of Kansas looked at the types of foods targeted by this diversification policy.[1]They then ranked these foods nutritionally using a database from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Cigarette manufacturers responsible for the rise in obesity

The researchers found that from 1988 to 2001, tobacco companies clearly favored so-called "hyperpalatable" food products, i.e. those containing a combination of fatty, salty and sweet ingredients. Compared to food products owned by companies other than tobacco, food products owned by the tobacco industry were in 29 % cases products classified as fattier and saltier, and in 80 % cases products classified as sweeter and saltier.

By selecting investments in these types of fatty and salty or sweet and salty food products and applying to them the methods developed for tobacco products (marketing targeting children and ethnic minorities, additives, etc.)[2], tobacco manufacturers have, according to researchers, encouraged the lasting establishment of these products in the food landscape in the United States[3]. However, the combination of fatty, sugary and salty ingredients in foods increases their appeal to the brain and is more likely to produce a food compulsion or addiction.

With two-thirds (68 %) of food products sold in the United States today based on combinations of fatty, salty, and sugary ingredients, the authors estimate that the tobacco industry has contributed to the rise of the obesity epidemic in the country. Tobacco manufacturers are therefore at the origin of not one, but two major sources of premature mortality, with obesity being the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States behind smoking. Obesity, which affected 15 % of Americans in 1980 and 23 % in 1994, stood at 42 % in 2020, with no federal law restricting the use of ingredients deemed harmful to health.[4].

Commonalities between smoking and food addiction

Although they detail the types of investments made by tobacco manufacturers, the researchers believe they do not have enough information to make a decision on the motivations that may have pushed these manufacturers towards the agri-food sector.

A possible answer, however, appears in a study published in 2020, which locates in the same cortical areas the neural circuits leading to addiction to tobacco or to fatty, salty and sugary products.[5]. These circuits would include not only those of dopamine, but also those linked to the intestinal microbiota. Common psychological (childhood trauma, emotional insecurity) and behavioral factors would also contribute to explaining the appearance and installation of each of these addictions.

Keywords: United States, food products, food addiction, obesity.

M.F.

[1] Fazzino T, Jun D, Chollet-Hinton L, Bjorlie K, US tobacco companies selectively disseminated hyper-palatable foods into the US food system: Empirical evidence and current implications, Addiction, First published: 08 September 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16332

[2] Nguyen KH, Glantz SA, Palmer CN, Schmidt LA, Tobacco industry involvement in children's sugary drinks market, BMJ 2019; 364:l736 doi:10.1136/bmj.l736

[3] Lynch B, Study shows food from tobacco-owned brands more 'hyperpalatable' than competitors' food, University of Kansas, published September 9, 2023, accessed September 11, 2023.

[4] Whitfill Roeloffs M, Did Tobacco Companies Also Get Us Hooked On Junk Food? New Research Says Yes, Forbes, published September 9, 2023, accessed September 11, 2023.