The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food (doctor, protein, 2013)
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The ultimate problem is that most Americans are fat and lazy and have the palette and food knowledge of a 5-year old and the cooking skills of a house cat. These companies are just catering to these people's desires, as they would be expected to do in a free market economy.
People don't want to buy produce, because that would involve actual cooking. Instead they want to stick something in the microwave and hit a button. Or they want to stick it on a baking sheet and put it in the oven and hit a timer. Or add the contents of the packet with 1 cup of water and boil for 10 minutes (after they google how to boil water). No cooking knowledge or effort required. Sometimes even that's too much trouble, because once you're done eating, you have to suffer the horrible burden of taking 5 minutes to load the dishwasher and hit a button. So let's just go to Taco Bell.
Americans' palettes are so bad they can't tell the difference between pork and textured vegetable protein. They can't tell the difference between soybean oil and olive oil. They can't tell the difference between artificial strawberry flavor and actual strawberry. They can't tell the difference between honey and HFCS. Just use 90% HFCS, 10% honey, and then plaster all over the package "MADE WITH REAL HONEY!" Honey is expensive, HFCS is dirt cheap. The American consumer is too freaking stupid and lazy to read the ingredients, and their broken palette can't tell the difference, they'll never know they're being had.
The fiduciary responsibilities of these companies and the interests of public health are in direct conflict. I don't blame them for the problem, they're just giving American what it wants. But hearing them pretend like they're concerned and ready to do something about obesity is laughable. The only thing they could do to improve the situation is to get people to stop buying the crap they sell, and that's never going to happen because it's bad business. It's like Philip Morris saying they're going to try to combat lung cancer.
So what's the solution?
Last edited by EugeneOnegin; 02-21-2013 at 05:01 PM..
Back in the day, women stayed home, husbands worked came in at 5, dinner was on the table. The family sat at the table and ate. Then with the collapse of family, both parents working, kids having a bagillion things to do, here comes fast food, junk food. Quick and easy. Fried in animal fat, that's really tasty. Full of additives, that's really tasty. Decades of this and people forgot how to cook. It's easy, it's cheap. What's the solution? I wish I knew.
It's like Philip Morris saying they're going to try to combat lung cancer.
Funny you mentioned Philip Morris. At one point, Philip Morris owned Oscar Myers and General Foods, both of which are mentioned in the article. What Philip Morris is to lung cancer, Oscar Myers/General Foods are to obesity, diabetes and blood pressure.
A chemist by training with a doctoral degree in food science, Behnke became Pillsbury’s chief technical officer in 1979 and was instrumental in creating a long line of hit products......
.....In the months leading up to the C.E.O. meeting, he was engaged in conversation with a group of food-science experts who were painting an increasingly grim picture of the public’s ability to cope with the industry’s formulations — from the body’s fragile controls on overeating to the hidden power of some processed foods to make people feel hungrier still. It was time, he and a handful of others felt, to warn the C.E.O.’s that their companies may have gone too far in creating and marketing products that posed the greatest health concerns.
More at the link. A NYT Sunday Magazine article. Ive read something related to this in Kesslers "The End of Overeating"...but this focuses specifically on junk food....
I think junk food is psychologically addicting. I do not believe it is physiologically addicting. People do not go through addiction withdrawals if they stop eating junk food (with the possible exception of caffinated drinks). They have a hard time stopping in the first place, they have cravings, but they do not have withdrawal symptoms.
The thing with junk food and fast food is that is very available.
Cooking is boring and even other animals tend to overeat when food is available
That Dorito looks good.
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The Extrodinary Science of Addictive Junk Food
