By Dr Guy Hatchard

The Millbank Quarterly (a multidisciplinary journal of health and health policy) published an article on 2 February 2026 entitled “From Tobacco to Ultraprocessed Food: How Industry Engineering Fuels the Epidemic of Preventable Disease“. The authors explain how ultra processed foods (UPFs) and beverages are specifically designed to heighten chemical rewards in order to develop addictive eating behaviours among consumers that bypass the constraints of our normal appetites.