Former FDA chief: Ultraprocessed foods are ‘addictive’ like drugs

(NewsNation) — Ultraprocessed foods engineered with fat, sugar and salt are "addictive" and driving America's obesity crisis, according to a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner who argues the problem goes far beyond individual willpower.

Dr. David Kessler, who led the FDA and later ran Operation Warp Speed, said obesity rates have jumped from 13% in the 1960s to 42% today because of what he calls "ultraformulated foods" that trigger dopamine responses similar to addictive drugs.

"We took fat, sugar and salt, put it on every corner, made it available 24/7, made it socially acceptable to eat any time," Kessler said Thursday on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” "We're living in a food carnival. What did we expect to happen?"

Four out of 10 American adults are classified as obese, with up to a quarter of them morbidly obese. Kessler, author of the new book "Diet, Drugs and Dopamine," said the real health threat comes from toxic abdominal fat that infiltrates the liver, pancreas and heart.

Around 25% of American men will develop heart failure in their lifetime, 33% will develop diabetes, and 25% will have a stroke, according to Kessler.

Unlike traditional processed foods that contain preservatives or stabilizers, ultraformulated foods combine fat, sugar and salt in ways that affect the brain's reward systems, Kessler explained.

Food companies design products to hit what they call the "bliss point" that triggers these reward circuits.

"It's not like amphetamine or cocaine, but I certainly use food," said Kessler, who gained 40 pounds after running Operation Warp Speed. "It's not about willpower. It's about biology."

The former FDA chief said Americans need to change how they view these foods, comparing the effort to the successful campaign against tobacco that transformed cigarettes from glamorous to deadly in public perception.

Kessler also weighed in on GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, which federal researchers are now studying for use to treat alcohol addiction in patients not overweight.

These medications work by slowing food through the stomach to the point of nausea, counterbalancing reward circuits, though Kessler said more research is needed.