Why Do Adults Engage in High Levels of Ultra-Processed Food Consumption

Name-
Student ID-
Word Count- 1477
Submission Date – 10th April 2025
Introduction
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are industrial formulations prepared mostly from
extractives or derivatives from food and additives with little to almost no whole food
content. These products such as sweet or Savory snacks, fast food, sugary fizzy soft
drinks, and packaged microwave meals are designed for convenience, very durable,
and hyper-palatable. The consumption of these products in large quantities has been
associated with very grave public health issues, including obesity, type 2 diabetes,
heart disease, and some forms of cancer.
Food behaviours in terms of emotional eating, cue reactivity to food, and habitual
snack play in the overall nutrition and diet of the individual. This report tries to
understand the factors that lead to high levels of UPF consumption among adults. It
uses the socioecological model, which looks at factors from biological, psychological,
and social to environmental levels. The evidence-based recommendations are linked
to the latter for promoting health as a way to reduce UPF intake by the community
(4).

Multifaceted Analysis of Food Behaviours and Influencing Factors

Food Behaviours Related to UPF Overconsumption

Adults often exhibit unhealthy food behaviours; this directly leads to the consumption
of high levels of ultra-processed food (UPF). The most common unhealthy food
behaviour is snacking. A good majority of the people have automatic regimes of
taking snacks between meals and at late hours of the night; most of the energy-
dense UPFs snacks are easy to access and consume. This habitual eating occurs
with little conscious thought and is reinforced by convenience, taste, and availability.
Emotional eating is another significant behaviour. Many people eat ultra-processed
foods as a way of comforting themselves when they are stressed, bored, sad, or
anxious. These foods may provide temporary emotional relief because of their
rewarding sensory properties, but this sets a cycle of dependency and strengthens
already weak dietary lessons (1).
Mindless eating, mostly when watching television or working while seated at a desk,
makes people take larger portions without realizing it. This habit makes them lose
the feeling of being full which leads to consuming more calories without the mental
fulfilment of eating (2).

Biological Mechanisms

Ultra-processed foods are meant to be hyper-palatable: fat, sugar, salt, and additives
in such foods stimulate the rewarding capacity of the brain. This makes them more
attractive and may enhance cravings and repeated consumption. The reactions of
the brains to these foods follow similar pathways to those of addictive conditions and
therefore habitual intake is reinforced over time (3).
Regular consumption of UPF may interfere with the natural systems of regulating
appetite in the body. Such foods often bypass satiety signals, so the consumers
continue eating even when their energy needs have been met. Whole foods are high
in fibre and protein since they are key in the lasting satiety, UPFs do not.
Moreover, genetic predispositions might affect individual vulnerability to UPF over-
consumption. Some individuals are more biologically predisposed to reward-seeking
behaviour or impulsive eating. These predispositions exposed to an environment that
provides a rich variety of UPFs lead to habitual over-consumption difficult to self-
regulate in the majority of the cases (3).

Psychological Factors

Psychological factors play a major role in unhealthy eating behaviours. A majority of

people eat ultra-processed foods (UPFs) for reasons other than nourishment; they
provide comfort, and wasted or overeaten. In a situation where effective coping
strategies for stress are not found, UPF is the quick solution for availing such
emotions. Infancy and childhood experiences have formed food habits; eating
candies as a reward for finishing household chores, or merely consuming more UPF
when the household used more convenience foods, then the consumption pattern is
reinforced. The practice becomes established and is not easy to change. Inadequate
knowledge and erroneous beliefs result in poor dietary decisions. Most adults do not
have a correct assessment of the risks to health that result from UPFs, and some
would be misled by labels such as "low-fat" or "organic" to think that they are healthy.
These illusions take away the motivation to undertake changes that switch to the
consumption of healthier, whole-food diets (4).
Social Factors

Dietary patterns are significantly shaped by the social environment. In many

societies, the intake of fast and convenient foods is not only accepted but also
encouraged. Cultural normalization of UPFs makes it hard to resist them, especially
in social situations where food choices are a collective decision or influenced by
other people.
Eating behaviours, like office snacking, weekend takeouts, or dining with pals,
largely depend on UPFs. Such belonging habits help regular intake and form a
likable link with food that proves to be unhealthy. In fact, these foods are unhealthy.
Time scarcity, most especially in families where both parents work or in people who
work shifts, adds to the consumption of ultra-processed foods. There is usually much
time, planning, and money needed to prepare healthy meals, while ultra-processed
foods offer an easy and quick solution. For many households, particularly those with
young kids or with more than one job, ultra-processed foods become a feasible
option even though they have health dangers (5).

Environmental Influences

Environmental factors play a big part in shaping food behaviours. Ultra-processed

foods are found on the shelves in supermarkets, at the corners of small convenience
stores, in vending machines, and are delivered by food delivery apps.
Marketing strategies, mainly those that emphasize convenience, indulgence and
affordability, affect the preference of consumers and drive what they eat. Continuous
exposure to the television and social media ad, even displays inside the store, forms
a food cue environment that later results in impulsive purchase and consumption.
Price is another important factor. Ultra-processed foods are much cheaper than the
healthy options, especially in low-income communities. This economic distinction
pushes the consumption of high-calorie, low-nutrient foods because it is perceived to
carry more value with the money (6).
Theoretical Integration

The COM-B model explains these behaviours in terms of the following basic
components: capability, opportunity, and motivation. People may not know how to
cook, have no time or access to healthy food, or may not feel motivated by stress or
emotional hunger to change their eating behaviours. The socioecological model
extends this and examines how the factors at the levels of the individual,
interpersonal, community, and policy show interaction and influence the dietary
choice of the individual (7).

Recommendations for Intervention

1. Reduce emotional eating

The approach isolates emotional eating hence stressing the motivational part of the
COM-B model that works directly with automatic motivation elicited by stress and
distress. This may include the provision of group treatments based on Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or stress management workshops such as mindfulness
or emotional regulation, to enhance and develop skills for clients to sustain non-food
related coping mechanisms. It was designed to work with the former, hence on an
individual level of psychology, affected by social and cultural norms relating to food
and emotions (8).

2. Improve food literacy and label reading skills

It targets the psychological capability by way of raising knowledge and skills in
decision-making. Offers available to firms or online modules can centre on teaching
folk how to read nutrition labels and comprehend the tricks of food marketing. This
gives consumers an ability to make choices based on better information and reduces
the risk of accidental over-consumption of ultra-processed foods. At an interpersonal
and community level, this forms part of shared learning and changes the social
norms of how people shop and eat (8).

3. Policy change: Restrict UPF marketing during peak hours and introduce
front-of-pack warning labels
This recommendation addresses opportunity, particularly social and physical
opportunity, by modifying environmental triggers that influence food choice.
Borrowing from successful policies in tobacco and alcohol control, banning
advertisements and introducing clear, front-of-pack warning labels will reduce
exposure to persuasive marketing. Viewed from a socioecological model, this
constitutes the policy level that can create a healthier food environment by reducing
external triggers on which to base a decision to consume UPFs (4).

Conclusion
The consumption of ultra-processed foods is driven by a myriad of factors, including
behavioural, biological, psychological, social, and environmental components. Both
emotional and unconscious eating play a significant role in the path to
overconsumption of hyper-palatable foods, thereby underpinning their potential harm
to public health, and is reinforced by the social normalization of such eating habits.
Models such as COM-B and Socioecological illustrate the embodied multifaceted
intervention that should be provided with different angles at the level of capability,
opportunity, and motivation from the individual level up to the societal level. Thus, it
would propose that adequate treatment programs should be directed not only to
raise food literacy in making an informed choice but also to create policies to reduce
exposure to marketing. The simultaneous construction of health interventions at
multiple levels with different foci creates vibrant and healthy foodscapes to uphold
and support conscious and healthy nutrition conduct; however, conscious and
healthy nutrition conduct demands a healthy and conscious environment.
References

1. Dakanalis, A., Mentzelou, M., Papadopoulou, S. K., Papandreou, D.,

Spanoudaki, M., Vasios, G. K., Pavlidou, E., Mantzorou, M., & Giaginis, C.
(2023). The association of emotional eating with overweight/obesity,
depression, anxiety/stress, and dietary patterns: A review of the current
clinical evidence. Nutrients, 15(5), 1173. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15051173
2. Hallez, L., Qutteina, Y., Raedschelders, M., Boen, F., & Smits, T. (2020).
That’s my cue to eat: A systematic review of the persuasiveness of front-of-
pack cues on food packages for children vs. adults. Nutrients, 12(4), 1062.
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12041062
3. Dutta, S. S. (2025, April 9). Eating ultra-processed foods may rewire your
brain’s hunger and reward circuits. News-Medical.net. https://www.news-
medical.net/news/20250409/Eating-ultra-processed-foods-may-rewire-your-
braine28099s-hunger-and-reward-circuits.aspx
4. Ljubičić, M., Matek Sarić, M., Klarin, I., Rumbak, I., Colić Barić, I., Ranilović,
J., et al. (2023). Emotions and Food Consumption: Emotional Eating Behavior
in a European Population. Foods, 12(4), 872.
https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12040872
5. Djupegot, I. L., Nenseth, C. B., Bere, E., Bjørnarå, H. B. T., Helland, S. H.,
Øverby, N. C., Torstveit, M. K., & Stea, T. H. (2017). The association between
time scarcity, sociodemographic correlates and consumption of ultra-
processed foods among parents in Norway: a cross-sectional study. BMC
Public Health, 17, 447. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4408-3
6. Serafim, P., Borges, C. A., Cabral-Miranda, W., & Jaime, P. C. (2022). Ultra-
Processed Food Availability and Sociodemographic Associated Factors in a
Brazilian Municipality. Frontiers in Nutrition, 9, 858089.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.858089
7. Nguyen-Trung, K., Saeri, A. K., Zhao, K., Boulet, M., & Kaufman, S. (2023). A
brief introduction to a socio-ecological COM-B (SeCOM-B): A behaviour
change framework response to wicked problems. OSF Preprints.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373865515_A_Brief_Introduction_to
_a_Socio-Ecological_COM-B_SeCOM-
B_A_Behaviour_Change_Framework_Response_to_Wicked_Problems
8. Torres, S., Sales, C. M. D., Guerra, M. P., Simões, M. P., Pinto, M., & Vieira, F.
M. (2020). Emotion-focused cognitive behavioral therapy in comorbid obesity
with binge eating disorder: A pilot study of feasibility and long-term outcomes.
Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 343. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00343
9. Taillie, L. S., Hall, M. G., Popkin, B. M., Ng, S. W., & Murukutla, N. (2020).
Experimental studies of front-of-package nutrient warning labels on sugar-
sweetened beverages and ultra-processed foods: A scoping review. Nutrients,
12(2), 569. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12020569