We can now officially blame science for our poor choices.
Scientists have argued that it is possible to create an “addictiveness scale” in order to determine which processed food is the “crack cocaine” of the food world.
The study authors at the University of Michigan characterise addictiveness by factors such as “loss of control over consumption, continued use despite negative consequences, and an inability to cut down despite the desire to do so.”
For the study, 120 undergraduate students filled out the Yale Food Addiction Scale to determine their substance dependence.
They were then shown pictures of 35 common foods in pairs and asked to choose which food was more likely to produce addiction symptoms as listed above.
Chocolate came up most often, followed by ice cream and french fries – however, the researchers were still not convinced they had found the most addictive food out there.
They went back to the drawing board and asked a further 384 people to rate the addictiveness of the foods on a scale of 1-7.
According to IFLS, the clear winner with this larger and more comprehensive research was pizza, with an average score of 4.01.
Next came chocolate and chips with a joint rating of 3.73.
All of the foods which rated highly were, unsurprisingly, highly processed and rich in sugar, fat, or both.
At the other end of the scale, the least addictive foods were cucumber, carrots and beans.
We could have told you that.
