"Food brands owned by tobacco companies -- which invested heavily into the US food industry in the 1980s -- appear to have 'selectively disseminated hyperpalatable foods' to American consumers."

"While tobacco companies divested from the US food system between the early to mid-2000s, perhaps the shadow of Big Tobacco has remained. The new KU study finds the availability of fat-and-sodium hyperpalatable foods (more than 57%) and carbohydrate-and-sodium hyperpalatable foods (more than 17%) was still high in 2018, regardless of prior tobacco ownership, showing these foods have become mainstays of the American diet."

"The majority of what's out there in our food supply falls under the hyperpalatable category. It's actually a bit difficult to track down food that's not hyperpalatable. In our day-to-day lives, the foods we're surrounded by and can easily grab are mostly the hyperpalatable ones. And foods that are not hyperpalatable, such as fresh fruits and vegetables -- they're not just hard to find, they're also more expensive."

More specifically, what the study did was use United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data sets were used to identify hyper-palatable foods that were and were not owned by US tobacco companies from 1988 to 2001. They found 105 that were and 587 that were not owned by tobacco companies.

"Tobacco-owned foods were 29% more likely to be classified as fat and sodium hyper-palatable foods and 80% more likely to be classified as carbohydrate and sodium hyper-palatable foods than foods that were not tobacco-owned between 1988 and 2001 (P-values = .005-0.009). The availability of fat and sodium hyper-palatable foods (>57%) and carbohydrate and sodium hyper-palatable foods (>17%) was high in 2018 regardless of prior tobacco-ownership status, suggesting widespread saturation into the food system."

Study shows food from tobacco-owned brands more 'hyperpalatable' than competitors' food | The University of Kansas

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