The snack aisle looks like a multiverse these days. Coca-Cola-flavored Oreos. Oreo-flavored Coca-Cola. Hot honey chips. Everything bagel everything. Somebody in a boardroom keeps asking, “What if we crossed these two brands and made people hyped,” and then they do it again.
A new analysis in Milbank Quarterly argues this isn’t harmless fun. The researchers say ultra-processed foods get engineered to target the brain’s reward systems in a way that feels uncomfortably familiar to how cigarette companies would market their products.
“Brand mash-ups like Coca-Cola-flavored Oreos or Oreo-flavored Coca-Cola stimulate human curiosity for new products all while leveraging the familiarity of popular brands,” the authors wrote. “Thus, modern [ultra-processed foods] hijack evolutionary drives for novelty and familiarity to encourage further intake of their products.”
Junk Food and Cigarettes Have More in Common Than You Think, Scientists Say
Ultra-processed foods already have a terrible reputation. They’re built for speed, convenience, and a “just right” hit of salt, sugar, and fat. The paper draws a straight line between that design logic and tobacco. “Tobacco cigarettes and UPFs share many key features; both are industrially engineered substances that deliver powerful sensory experiences and have been, in some cases, produced or owned by the same corporations,” the authors wrote. They point to the 1980s era when tobacco giants bought major food brands, including Nabisco, which makes the whole thing feel a little dystopian and edging into Idiocracy territory.
The argument isn’t that an Oreo is the same as a Marlboro. It’s the playbook that looks awfully similar. Both product categories lean on the rapid delivery of active compounds. With cigarettes, that’s nicotine. In many ultra-processed foods, it’s a refined carbohydrate and added fat combo that the authors describe as rare and unusually rewarding, which helps explain why a “reasonable portion” feels hard to control.
They also call out how the industry keeps you cycling through novelty without changing the base formula much. “Minor tweaks to flavoring agents, aroma compounds, or texture modifiers yield a wide range of seemingly new products,” the authors wrote, while the underlying macronutrient profile stays basically the same.
The paper calls for policies that treat ultra-processed foods more seriously, including stronger labeling, marketing restrictions, and reduced exposure in schools and hospitals. “Policies that confront UPFs with the same seriousness that once applied to tobacco, while actively promoting real food, offer the most promising path out of the current crisis,” the authors wrote.
If you’re tired of being lectured about food, same. Still, the snack industry has gotten very good at turning curiosity into a habitual routine.
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