As I mentioned in the issue for the word "palatable," the palate is the roof of the mouth, or the sense of taste, and something palatable has a good taste.

Add "hyper-," meaning "above, beyond, or over," and you get "hyperpalatable:" a word for foods and drinks that are not just tasty, but unnaturally tasty, and therefore likely to cause people to overeat them or even get addicted to them. 

You know those foods: they're high in calories, with lots of salt, sugar, and/or fat, and low on things that actually help you feel full or satisfied, like fiber.

That's my understanding of the concept of hyperpalatability. However, I'm not a scientist or dietician, so please take my definition with a grain of salt.

As I'm writing this in December 2025, although "hyperpalatable" hasn't made it into dictionaries yet, we do have some authoritative definitions from scientists. Here's how these scientists defined "hyperpalatability" in 2019: "a condition in which the synergy between key ingredients in a food creates an artificially enhanced palatability experience that is greater than any key ingredient would produce alone." They also gave this set of three mathematical definitions of hyperpalatable foods: "(1) fat and sodium (> 25% kcal from fat, ≥ 0.30% sodium by weight), (2) fat and simple sugars (> 20% kcal from fat, > 20% kcal from sugar), and (3) carbohydrates and sodium (> 40% kcal from carbohydrates, ≥ 0.20% sodium by weight)."

Part of speech:

Adjective: "Brownies and potato chips are hyperpalatable foods."

Other forms: 

You can use a hyphen, if you prefer: "hyper-palatable."

The noun for the quality or idea is "hyperpalatability." 

how to use it:

The word "hyperpalatable" is formal and scientific-sounding, but easy to understand.

So feel free to use it whenever you need to describe foods that are not just nutritionally worthless but actually engineered to make us overconsume them. It's a word that helps us shift some of the blame for the obesity epidemic from those who suffer from it to those who profit from it.

You might talk about hyperpalatable foods, drinks, recipes, snacks, meals, or combinations.

You might even get figurative and talk about hyperpalatable things we consume that aren't food: "Stranger Things is hyperpalatable, with simple storylines, catchy music, and a cast of characters that you instantly hate or love. I'm currently bingeing Season 3."

examples:

"Some 70 percent of the calories available in America today are deemed hyperpalatable and are in foods designed for the overconsumption that chronically sickens us. They're also heavily marketed and cheap."
  — Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall, New York Times, 10 September 2025

"Tobacco executives brought across marketing strategies, flavoring and colorings to expand product lines and engineered fatty, sweet and salty hyperpalatable foods such as cookies, cereals and frozen foods linked to obesity and diet-related diseases. These foods activate our reward circuits and encourage us to consume more."   
  — Nick Chartres and Lisa Bero, Salon, 2 May 2024

has this page helped you understand "hyperpalatable"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "hyperpalatable" without saying "addictive" or "habit-forming."

try it out:

Pamela Peeke, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland, has this to say about hyperpalatable foods:

"Some emotional eaters... are prone to reach for foods that will ignite the reward center of the brain, which tend to be the sugary, fatty, salty, hyper-palatable foods that can lead to weight gain... They're not bingeing on arugula."

I can definitely relate! In stressful times, I've reached for Flavor-Blasted Goldfish Crackers (hyperpalatable) or Panera mac and cheese (hyperhyperpalatable) or Little Debbie Swiss Rolls (supercalifragilisticexpihyperpalatable).

Can you relate, also? Is there a hyperpalatable food or two that seems to call your name when you're stressed out?

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Name the Game!"

I'll share some tidbits about a particular board game with a one-word name, and you try to name it. 

You can scroll all the way down to see the game's real name. Maybe you'll come up with the correct name, or one that’s just as apt!

Try this one today:

The game's name is 1 syllable.

It starts with R.

"The nefarious Marquise de Cat has seized the great woodland, intent on harvesting its riches. Under her rule, the many creatures of the forest have banded together. This Alliance will seek to strengthen its resources and subvert the rule of Cats."

review this word:

1. The precise opposite of HYPERPALATABLE would be HYPOPALATABLE, which would mean

A. "against tasty:" disliking tasty foods.
B. "less than tasty:" bland or bad-tasting.
C. "falsely tasty:" tasty because of unnatural additives.

2. According to Dr. Tera Fazzino, we can reduce our consumption of _____.

A. hyperpalatable violence in the news by going for a walk in nature a few times a week
B. hyperpalatable foods by choosing more whole foods, like tomatoes or lentils
C. hyperpalatable plastics by switching to reusable items, like water bottles and grocery bags

Answers to the review questions: 1. B 2. B From the game: Root.

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.