Hello Doctor - I think the issue you mentioned seems to always be covered in the context of "Frank was depressed, so he ate to relieve his depression" which indicates that the solution would be to take prescription meds for depression. I have never heard a traditional clinician say that these foods are actually addictive due to the way they are formulated. My husband has been in the hospital for several days and just had major cervical spine surgery yesterday (outcome excellent, prognosis good). I was at the hospital for over 12 hrs a day every day from last Thurs. to now and at least 80% of patients and visitors were overweight - and the 20% who were not were primarily elderly and frail. Everyone I talked with was on not one, but several Rx meds and obviously, just listening to the conversations - not eating a nutritious diet. I would classify the hospital food as potentially good - but only if you ate the extreme basics and focused on the salad bar (they actually had olive oil and red wine vinegar) and not the prepared salads and ate basic veges, which were all steamed. I feel like there's an article there in some fashion - but I'm off for a bit until Bruce advances with his recovery.