Research paper
Fazzino TL, Rohde K, Sullivan DK. Hyper-palatable foods: development of a quantitative definition and application to the US food system database. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2019;27(11):1761-1768. doi:10.1002/oby.22639. PMID: 31689013.
Why we cite it
The paper that gave hyper-palatable foods a quantitative definition, the first by its authors’ own account (rigorous removed 2026-09-19) — replacing vague descriptors like “junk food” or “fast food” with specific nutrient thresholds that can be measured and tested. Published in Obesity, Fazzino and colleagues analyzed 7,757 food items from the USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) and identified three distinct clusters of nutrient combinations that make foods hyper-palatable: fat+sodium, fat+sugar, and carbohydrates+sodium. 62% (4,795/7,757) of foods in the FNDDS met these criteria, and the authors conclude, hedged, that ”a substantial percentage of foods in the US food system may be hyper-palatable”. 49% of items labelled reduced or no fat, sugar, salt or calorie still qualified. For the project, this is a concrete framework for why environment design matters. The paper’s own account of mechanism is preliminary: ”preliminary research suggests that foods may be designed in ways that create hyper-palatability”, with effects that ”may facilitate overconsumption despite satiety”. It measures composition, not intake. (Corrected 2026-09-19. This read ”hyper-palatability isn’t the exception, it’s the norm”, dropping the abstract’s may be; gave the labelling categories as sugar, fat, or sodium; and said ”most available foods are engineered to override satiety signals”. Engineered does not occur in the paper.)