Baby Formula Industry is Getting kids Hooked on Added Sugars From the Cradle

An analysis of infant formulas present in U.S. markets in 2022 (n = 73) found that most baby formulas consist primarily of added sugars and very little lactose. In standard formulas, which contained the most lactose, a median of 60% of the lactose was refined and added instead of natural lactose. Added sugars are 60-90% of total sugars across all formulas while total sugars constitute over half of calories for standard formulas and around a third of calories for gentle and lactose free formulas. Infants who only consume formula could be consuming as much as 60 grams of added sugars daily.

Getting children hooked on foods high in added sugars this early is certain to bring in windfalls for both the ultra processed food industry and big pharma. Numerous rodent experiments have found that sugar binging has all of the hallmarks of addiction and has been shown to sensitize rats to amphetamines, a behavior that was observed after a week of abstaining from sugar, and rats hooked on amphetamines have been found to be cross sensitized to sugar based meals. Human research participants have rated UPFs highest on the Yale Food addiction scale, especially those with added sugars, and brain imaging studies have found that binge eating shares similarities to drug addiction in activating the reward circuitry of the brain.

Gearhardt and DiFeliceantonio propose that consumption of UPF especially those high in added sugars meets the criteria the Surgeon General used to identify cigarettes and other tobacco products as addictive in a 1988 report such as compulsive use, psychoactivity (mood altering effect), and being a behavior reinforcing substance, and having the ability to trigger cravings. In rodent experiments, subjects have been found to self-administer sugar in a wider range of conditions than nicotine.

A series of rodent experiments conducted in the early 2000s in which rats were tested under 3 reward conditions that would result in either a behaviorally effective dose of cocaine (0.25 mg), artificially sweetened water or both found that rats in the last reward condition that had access to both artificially sweetened water and cocaine developed a statistically significant preference for artificially sweetened water by day 2. Even when the cocaine dose was increased to 1.5 mg and the delivery of artificially sweetened water was delayed by 18 seconds the subjects still showed a preference for artificially sweetened water. Subjects switched from the cocaine reward only condition to the both condition also developed a preference for artificially sweetened water.