How to Manage Hyperpalatable Foods
The trick to knowing when they should be going
Developing strategies to manage the intake of hyperpalatable foods has one of the highest ROIs for nutrition management. Making progress here, without doing anything else, can lead to big results for many people.
What is a hyperpalatable food?
Hyperpalatable foods are those that once you start eating, you find it very hard to stop. They are the foods that when the packet opens, it never closes until ending up in the bin.
Hyperpalatable foods vary for everyone, but they commonly include things like chocolate, lollies and chips, or other combinations of fat, salt and sugar.
What’s interesting about hyperpalatable foods is how specific they can be. Someone might be able to have two pieces of dark chocolate with their evening tea and be done with it. But if they have two pieces of milk chocolate, they are back at the cupboard every five minutes until the packet is gone.
What’s the problem with hyperpalatable foods?
The issue is that hyperpalatable foods are very hard to stop consuming once underway, which leads to significant energy intake.
Hyperpalatable foods are almost always high in fat or sugar and have a high energy content. Eating a large amount of any food with a high energy content will lead to significant energy intake.
It’s also important not to overlook the salt content of many hyperpalatable foods. While it doesn’t contribute to energy intake or balance, excessive salt intake can be problematic and should be monitored.
Keeping an eye on salt intake when looking for alternative food options is a good idea, as many low-energy alternatives are stacked with salt to enhance the taste.
Elimination and re-introduction
Elimination is the only way to manage a hyperpalatable food. If you tell me that when you plan to have a couple of pieces of chocolate, you always eat the entire block, I’m setting you up for failure if I tell you to keep two pieces of chocolate in there and “try harder” not to overeat it.
Instead, let’s find ways to keep enjoyable foods in your diet that you are better placed to manage the intake of. For some people, this might be a small number of lollies or my current personal favourite, hot cocoa.
We can keep the intake of some salt, sugar and fat or texture, but it needs to be done on our terms.
When a food has been eliminated for a period of time, it can be reintroduced to see how management goes. Some people find they can manage it better after a period of elimination and will reintroduce it to their diet.
Others still find it hard to manage and prefer to avoid it long-term (very common).
While I’m typically not about avoiding foods completely, I think it’s a valid strategy for managing the intake of hyperpalatable foods.
There is no loss of nutritional value when it comes to removing hyperpalatable foods such as chocolate, chips and lollies, plus we can work to find alternatives that maintain some pleasure in the diet.
How do you know if a food is hyperpalatable?
Some people find it challenging to think of their hyperpalatable foods while others can name them straight away. If you think it might be, it probably is.
If unsure, try to be mindful of what foods you find hard to put down when you have them. Chocolate, chips and lollies are probably the most popular but biscuits, nuts and muesli bars also pop up a lot.
Once you’ve identified the food, consider the context of their consumption to develop a strategy to manage them. Your two options are substitution or elimination.
Substitution involves putting some other foods in there. You might replace biscuits with some fruit and/or yoghurt. While this still contains energy, it will be less than the uncontrolled intake of hyperpalatable food.
Elimination involves cutting the food out completely.
The best option depends on the individual. Some people prefer substitution because it maintains the habit of eating after dinner, while others would rather just avoid it completely.
What’s interesting is that some people will substitute with something new but then go to an elimination strategy. Often they find they aren’t hungry and only consume the hyperpalatable food for pleasure.
Summary
Managing the intake of hyperpalatable foods can have a rapid impact on energy balance. By eliminating large intakes of high-energy foods, we can bring the energy intake down significantly while allowing the rest of the diet to stay mostly the same.
Hyperpalatable foods vary between people, but if you find yourself struggling to close the packet when you open something or continually visiting the fridge for “one more”, you’ve probably found yours.
Q&A
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