Prefrontal cortex immaturity and reward circuit hijacking: Why anti-obesity policies fail to protect children from ultra-processed food overconsumption

The prevalence of obesity in pediatric populations has reached epidemic levels, largely due to consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), whose formulations are optimized for hyperpalatability and promote overconsumption in children and adolescents due to neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities.The prefrontal cortex, which governs planning, decision-making, and impulse control, reaches full maturity around 25 years of age.Children and adolescents have limited self-regulatory capacity, as their reward circuitry responds excessively to palatable stimuli.The high palatability and marketing of UPFs may interact with this neurobiological imbalance, triggering dopamine release and promoting addictive-like eating behaviors.Despite public health interventions such as front-of-package labeling, nutrient-based taxes, and restrictions on child-targeted marketing, evidence suggests these measures have had modest impact on consumption patterns.We hypothesize that the limited success of these approaches may be explained by their failure to address the underlying neurobiological mechanisms driving excessive consumption.Therefore, a paradigm shift toward parental education programs that foster healthy home food environments and promote early selfregulation skills is warranted, combined with family-based behavioral treatment.Finally, the potential role of pharmacological agents (e.g., glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists) that target the reward system in cases of severe pediatric compulsive overconsumption warrants future research, given the limited safety data in children.