Hyperpalatability Detector
Paste the per-100 g column of a nutrition label and check whether the food crosses any of the three macronutrient thresholds that define a hyperpalatable food.
Enter Nutrition Label (per 100 g)
Most labels show a per-100 g column alongside the per-serving column — use those numbers.
Verdict
- Result
- Awaiting input
- Enter values to see verdict
- Combo Detection
- Fat + SodiumNot triggered
- Fat + SugarNot triggered
- Carbohydrate + SodiumNot triggered
- Underlying Numbers
Calorie percentages use fat × 9 + carb × 4 as the denominator. Protein, when present, contributes additional calories not shown here, so the percentages above are upper bounds for protein-rich foods.
About the Hyperpalatability Framework
For decades, “hyperpalatable” was a useful word with no numeric definition. In 2019, Tera Fazzino, Kaitlyn Rohde, and Debra Sullivan published a paper in Obesity that gave it one. They identified three combinations of macronutrients which, when present together above specific thresholds, consistently appeared in foods that drove compulsive intake.
Each combo describes a profile that is essentially absent from whole foods and almost entirely a product of food engineering. The detector above compares a per-100 g nutrition label against those three thresholds and flags any that the food clears.
The Three Combos
- Fat + Sodium— more than 25% of calories from fat and at least 0.30% sodium by weight (300 mg per 100 g). The chips, pizza, and fried-food profile.
- Fat + Sugar— more than 20% of calories from fat and more than 20% from sugar. The ice cream, pastry, and milk-chocolate profile.
- Carbohydrate + Sodium— more than 40% of calories from carbohydrate and at least 0.20% sodium by weight (200 mg per 100 g). The pretzel, cracker, and salty-snack profile.
A food only needs to cross one threshold to count as hyperpalatable; many cross two. The plain-English read on the framework is in our article Hyperpalatable Foods: The Math Behind Why You Can’t Stop Eating.
Citation
Fazzino, T. L., Rohde, K., & Sullivan, D. K. (2019). Hyper-Palatable Foods: Development of a Quantitative Definition and Application to the US Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies. Obesity, 27(11), 1761–1768.
Related
Hyperpalatable Foods (Article)
The Fazzino framework in plain English — the three combos, why whole foods don’t cross them, and what to do about it.
Satiety Per Calorie Calculator
The opposite end of the spectrum: score a food on how much fullness it delivers per calorie.