Cambridge Forum digs into the underbelly of the typical American diet, an astounding 60% of which is made up of ultraprocessed foods – like cereals, breads, yoghurts and frozen dinners plus sweets and soda. There is mounting scientific evidence that UPFs are not just potentially addictive but also linked to our rocketing rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. We know that food can be either medicine or toxin; so how do we recognize “junk” food and make better eating choices?

We examine the links between diet and disease, zoning in on the addictive alchemy of certain combinations that make up HPF (hyper-palatable foods) which are irresistible to our taste buds. We ask three experts in the field for their advice. Jerry Manda, CEO of Nourish Science and Adjunct Professor of Nutrition at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Tera Fazzino, Assistant Professor or Psychology and Associate Director of the Cofrin Logan Center for Addiction Research and Treatment at the University of Kansas, and Larissa Zimberoff, freelance journalist who covers the intersection of food, technology and business, and also the author of "Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valley's Mission to Change What We Eat".

Join the discussion about who is responsible for the food environment we find ourselves in and whether the FDA should do more to regulate the labelling of highly addictive foodstuffs with health warnings.