Ultra-processed foods (UPF) may be literally rewiring your brain to make you overeat, according to research that examined brain scans from nearly 30,000 middle-aged adults and found structural changes in regions that control hunger and food cravings.
“We present evidence that eating UPFs increases several nutrient and metabolic markers of disease and is associated with structural brain changes in areas that regulate eating behavior,” the study authors wrote.
Key Brain Changes Identified
The research, recently published in Nature, found that people who consumed more UPFs showed measurable differences in brain areas involved in feeding behavior, emotion, and motivation.
Higher UPF intake was linked to increased thickness in the bilateral lateral occipital cortex—a brain region crucial for visual object recognition and processing shapes. This finding suggests changes in how the brain processes visual food cues.
“Our findings indicate that a high consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with structural changes in brain regions regulating eating behaviour, such as the hypothalamus, amygdala and right nucleus accumbens. This may lead to a cycle of overeating,” Arsène Kanyamibwa, the study’s first author and doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, said in a press statement.
