Big Tobacco hijacked our food decades ago, and the evidence is now undeniable. In the 1980s and ’90s, cigarette giants quietly bought up major food brands and applied their nicotine-addiction playbook to make processed foods unbelievably tasty – and equally addictive.

Today, over half our diets in wealthy nations consist of ultra-processed “hyper-palatable” foods (cereals, snacks, sodas, sweets and fast meals). These engineered products override our natural appetite signals and keep us hooked.

The same companies that lied about the dangers of cigarettes used cartoon mascots, toy tie-ins and flavor chemists to hook children and minorities on junk food.

The result is a public health catastrophe: soaring obesity, diabetes, heart disease and even early death among the very young. This is no accident – it’s the sickening product of 7 ways Big Tobacco hijacked our food supply for profit.

Below, we document these 7 tactics with academic studies, internal documents and investigative reports – and then show how eating an unprocessed carnivore/keto diet is the one way to fight back and protect yourself and your family.

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1. Corporate Takeover: How Big Tobacco Hijacked Our Food by Buying Big Food

In the 1980s, major cigarette companies moved beyond tobacco and acquired the food brands Americans love. Big Tobacco hijacked our food when Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds spent billions buying up Kraft, General Foods, Nabisco and dozens of other snack and beverage companies.

Suddenly, Big Tobacco dominated America’s food supply. Famous brands like Oreo cookies, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Lunchables and Teddy Grahams came under their control.

By 1993, Philip Morris controlled the world’s largest food conglomerate. These acquisitions let tobacco firms diversify and reap billions from processed foods, even as cigarette sales fell.

Washington Post journalist Anahad O’Connor noted that by 2000, the tobacco giants spun off their food businesses — but not before leaving a lasting legacy. This meant the same corporations selling cigarettes were now designing and marketing the snacks in our pantries.

Profits surged. But the Big Tobacco hijacked our food playbook also transferred: addiction science experts from cigarettes now engineered what we ate.

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2. Engineering Addiction: How Big Tobacco Hijacked Our Food with Hyper-Palatable Science

Big Tobacco hijacked our food not just through ownership, but through addictive design. Internal memos reveal that cigarette firms brought extensive libraries of flavors and chemicals into the food business.

They repurposed cigarette flavor science to make food taste irresistibly good. University of Michigan psychologist Ashley Gearhardt notes that tobacco companies altered natural ingredients to maximize reward responses in the brain.

“Every addictive substance is something that we take from nature and we alter… that is very clearly what happened with these hyper-palatable food substances,” she said.

Research confirms it. Between 1988 and 2001, foods from tobacco-owned brands were far more likely to be hyper-palatable. Tobacco-controlled products were 80% more likely to contain high carb and sodium blends, and 29% more likely to contain fat and sodium mixtures.

This was deliberate. Big Tobacco hijacked our food and flooded the market with snacks precisely engineered to hit our “bliss point.”

Gearhardt warns us: “We treat these foods like they come from nature. Instead, they come from Big Tobacco.”

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3. Hooking Kids: How Big Tobacco Hijacked Our Food Using Cartoons and Toys

Big Tobacco hijacked our food by ruthlessly targeting the most vulnerable — children.

RJ Reynolds transformed Hawaiian Punch into a children’s drink using the Punchy mascot. Philip Morris launched Lunchables in 1988 — a wildly unhealthy, sodium-packed TV dinner marketed straight to kids.

Philip Morris also created child-tested flavor campaigns for Kool-Aid and made dozens of cartoon-themed flavors. RJ Reynolds bragged internally: “R.J. Reynolds is in the flavor business.”

By the 1990s, their science had invaded cereals, puddings, and diet cookies like SnackWell’s. Cartoon characters, movie tie-ins and bright boxes flooded supermarket aisles.

Big Tobacco hijacked our food and turned snack-time into addiction training for kids.

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4. Targeting Minorities: How Big Tobacco Hijacked Our Food with Discriminatory Marketing

Big Tobacco hijacked our food and used the same sinister playbook they developed for cigarettes — this time targeting minorities.

Internal documents show Philip Morris transferred their tobacco marketing team directly into Kraft, creating aggressive minority-targeted campaigns.

They repurposed tobacco slogans and sponsored Black and Hispanic community events. Hispanic families were targeted with sugary drinks like Tang. African American audiences were sold processed comfort foods.

By the 2000s, Kraft General Foods was one of the top advertisers in minority media. Big Tobacco hijacked our food and saturated minority communities with ultra-processed products, directly fueling obesity and diabetes disparities.

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5. Healthwashing Deception: How Big Tobacco Hijacked Our Food with Lies About “Healthy” Processed Foods

Big Tobacco hijacked our food and then lied about it. SnackWell’s cookies were marketed as “healthy” because they were fat-free, yet they were loaded with sugar.

Teddy Grahams were sold as “wholesome” despite having almost no whole grain. Lunchables were advertised as nutritious meals for kids, but even executives joked the healthiest item was the napkin.

Doctors warned Lunchables were “blood pressure bombs.” Despite this, Philip Morris pushed them aggressively to parents and schools.

Their playbook was obvious: Big Tobacco hijacked our food by healthwashing dangerous ultra-processed snacks.

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6. Saturating Our Diets: How Big Tobacco Hijacked Our Food and Made Junk the Norm

By the 2000s, the companies spun off their food divisions. But by then, Big Tobacco hijacked our food so thoroughly that the rest of the industry copied them.

Professor Tera Fazzino’s research shows that over half of today’s grocery products are hyper-palatable — fat plus sodium or sugar plus sodium blends that mimic tobacco-era formulas.

Children in some communities now eat diets that are 80% ultra-processed. These products disrupt satiety signals and trigger cravings like addictive drugs.

Big Tobacco hijacked our food and laid the foundation for today’s obesity and diabetes epidemics. Experts now call for tobacco-style warning labels on processed foods.

Ultra-processed products are, as Professor Carlos Monteiro says, “pushing aside” real foods worldwide. Once again, profits came before people.

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7. The Corporate Cover-Up: How Big Tobacco Hijacked Our Food and Still Denies Responsibility

Even today, Big Tobacco hijacked our food and denies it. They emphasize “personal responsibility” while pumping billions into junk food marketing.

Internal memos prove they knew the risks. Kraft’s head of research privately warned their cookies might cause compulsive eating. Lawsuits allege they admitted childhood obesity was an epidemic, yet ignored it.

The playbook didn’t change. Big Tobacco hijacked our food, used children and minorities as test subjects, and rewrote nutrition science to addict us all.

The cover-up continues as advertising budgets for sugary and processed snacks soar every year.

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Reclaiming Our Health: How to Fight Back Against How Big Tobacco Hijacked Our Food

You now know how Big Tobacco hijacked our food — but you can take back control.

The most powerful solution is to cut ultra-processed foods completely. A strict carnivore or ketogenic diet eliminates sugar, seed oils, refined carbs and addictive additives.

When your body enters ketosis, hunger hormones fall, cravings vanish, and satiety rises. People find they no longer obsess over food. Steak, eggs, seafood and real fats satisfy without triggering addictive responses.

Beyond personal diet, protect your family:

• Teach kids about marketing tricks and avoid cartoon-box foods.

• Read labels: reject sugar, additives and seed oils.

• Cook simple meals at home with animal foods and healthy fats.

• Support policies for warning labels and junk-food ad bans.

• Share this exposé and spread the truth about how Big Tobacco hijacked our food.

The food industry learned from cigarettes. They used flavor engineering, cartoons, lies and targeted ads to addict the masses.

But you can opt out. Eat real food. Reject processed junk. Break the engineered cravings. And take your family’s health back from the corporations that hijacked your food supply.