Revealing new book from former head of FDA

The former head of the FDA in the U.S. is releasing a new book that says that junk foods are scientifically engineered to "manipulate your appetite, adding salt, sugar, and fat to their products in combinations designed to create hedonism on a plate — a taste experience so intense that it kicks the brain's pleasure system into overdrive.  It's like a drug. And like any drug, it leads you to obsess about that moment of pleasure so much that you'll do almost anything to prolong or relive it. The result: a bigger bottom line for them — and a bigger waistline for you."

Among other things he states that fast food and junk food companies employ food scientists in a deliberate attempt to design their food to come as close to that nirvana point as possible.  

How do you feel about this?

My feeling is, that in my case, they've failed because I find the stuff served in junk food places to be about as far from 'hedonism on a plate' as it's possible to imagine.  LOL!

I think there's more going on in the marketing and the distribution than simply in the food itself.  It's cheap, round every corner and the ads tell us it's great.  Most people sat in Macdonalds aren't drooling at the intense flavour experience I don't think.  No-one's sitting there saying 'this stuff is just gorgeous!!.. let me prolongue the experience'.   They're just 'refuelling'....

On the one hand, it makes me angry, but on the other hand:

1. This is exactly where you would expect junk food companies to spend their money: on product development.  Car companies do it, clothing companies do it.  And the goal of product development for junk food is to make it more of an 'indulgence' experience.  Unfortunately, this is capitalism. 

2. I do not generally eat junk food or fast food, and I think we have to have faith in consumers that they're not going to be entirely swayed by advertising and manipulative taste 'design.'  While I think that advertising to children should be severely limited if not completely illegal, I think adults have a responsibility to themselves and their families not to eat utter crap all the time.

I must admit it sickens me that we as a society spend so much time and resources on catering to our lower appetites.  And the other large problem is that a lot of people do not bother to get information about proper nutrition.  They read the word 'healthy' on a box of granola bars and think to themselves, 'Healthy!  Great!  Now I can indulge in McD's for dinner tonight.' 

I suppose all this taste manipulation of junk foods wouldn't be a problem if advertisers weren't so predatory and misleading.

Original Post by johnnypenso:

The former head of the FDA in the U.S. is releasing a new book that says that junk foods are scientifically engineered to "manipulate your appetite, adding salt, sugar, and fat to their products in combinations designed to create hedonism on a plate — a taste experience so intense that it kicks the brain's pleasure system into overdrive.  It's like a drug. And like any drug, it leads you to obsess about that moment of pleasure so much that you'll do almost anything to prolong or relive it. The result: a bigger bottom line for them — and a bigger waistline for you."

Among other things he states that fast food and junk food companies employ food scientists in a deliberate attempt to design their food to come as close to that nirvana point as possible.  

How do you feel about this?

In other words, they employ food scientists to make the food taste good?  Did you expect them to make it taste bad?  Now, it would be nice if they put more effort into making it healthy, but they are here to make money, not watch our health.  As long as the average American consumer doesn't care about how healthy the food is, the food companies won't care either.  Their job is to sell food, not put us on a diet.

And I really think that paragraph is an exaggeration.  Fast food doesn't taste that good.  It is certainly not nirvana on a plate.  It is just quick and easy.  They mostly appeal to our laziness.

I'm so glad someone really reputable is coming out about this! I've been reading a lot lately about the way your body reacts chemically and hormonally to processed foods (modified starches, hydrogenated oils, etc), and it's super scary! When we have this "intense taste experience" that doesn't necessarily refer to a conscious sensation... the chemical processes of digestion and appetite stimulation react to processed food in very extreme ways, and food developers know all about this, and aren't afraid of using it, especially because the processed foods (especially corn-based products) are much cheaper to produce than whole foods. Less cost in production + addicted consumers = greater profits. There is evidence that tobacco and alcohol companies employ the same chemists and research scientists as snack food companies, and that they regularly share research. Sounds fishy to me.

Anyway, I'm really happy to hear that maybe we will start hearing about this in some more mainstream media. Not that anyone can out-advertise the corn lobby, but if we each take responsibility for our own health, only good can come of it.

No Clharr, it goes beyond that.  They manipulate the foods, the specific combinations of sugar and salt and other flavours to the point where they become addictive, where you just can't get enough like any other addiction, or at least that is the author's suggestion.   It's not to improve taste but to go beyond that, to the point of "can't get enough".  I would suggest by looking at the waistlines of North American's and the fast food joints on every corner that there might be some validity to his assertions...lol..

I don't think you'll hear much about this in the mainstream media Sortoflikeagirl.  It's not glamourous, it's not exciting, it's not tittilating (sp?), it's not fun.  You might hear a 30 second soundbite here or there and that's it.  There's nothing to sell and nothing to promote except cutting down eating fast food and eating better and that's just not sexy enough, sadly, to make CNN or Fox take notice...

How much of that is an excuse for our own inability to control what we eat?  Now, I am fat because I eat too many sweets.  It doesn't matter to me who made the sweets, I could buy them as a snack food or make them from scratch, I still eat too many.  If it contains sugar, I can't get enough.  That is not the food companies fault.  It may just be my metabolism or something, but it is up to me to control it.

On the other hand, most of the (not sweet) food you claim has been made addictive, I don't even find tempting.  I can easily eat a few chips or crackers.  Something that is truly addictive would be addictive to everyone.

I don't think we, as a country, have gotten fat because of foods being manipulated, but because we have changed the way we eat for the worse.  We eat fast, easy, ready-made foods because we don't want to cook.  I see parents giving toddlers candy and cookies to keep them quiet.  They could have given them carrots, but the pre-packaged bags of chips are easier.  My mother would make peanut butter sandwiches and carry them around so she could give us some if we wanted something to eat.  No one bothers now.

My mother's generation believed that a vegetable should be served with every meal.  My generation thinks having to eat vegetables is a long forgotten part of childhood.  My children's generation isn't sure what a vegetable is.  How did this happen?  Advertising and laziness.  It would be nice if this was all some kind of a plot, but it reality, they are just giving us what we want and are buying.

I am the master of my own junk food.

I have yet to taste a Little Debbie cake that I would take over what I can bake. Addictiveness is a cost tradeoff.  I use better ingredients than Little Debbie and get more addictive results.    

The easy availability of sweets, and the self-control to eat them in small portions, are my problems.  But as Bret Maverick said,

"I'm workin' on it."

Right now I'm working on an Amish homemade caramel breakfast ring. I guarantee that this ring is more addictive than anything the FDA chief could possibly imagine, and it wasn't built using rocket nutrition science either. It's a slow enjoyable job for me to dispose of it, and taken with a lot of coffee. 

I agree with clharr 100%. I'm a 19 year old and most of my peers would pick a bag of chips over a banana, not beucase the chips are addictive but because it's convenient, 'cool', and you can easily eat it while multitasking (and if you can't finish it just roll up the bag and have the rest later, but you can't unpeel the rest of the banana.)

It's all about laziness, getting things as fast as possible with as little work as possible, and also if your favorite athlete say Doritos are freakin awesome then it must be true (even though said athlete just says that for money and in reality that athlete thrives on a high protein diet that doesn't allow carby chips)!

Perhaps you guys can explain why some people become addicted to gambling and others do not.  Why some people get addicted to alcohol and others do not.  We are not all the same, we do not have all the same life experiences, we do not all have the same willpower and ability to control our appetites.  You guys can, others can't, perhaps in part because particular combinations of sugars, salts, additives, preservatives, flavours, fat whatever stimulate something in their brain that is not stimulated in yours.

I've often wondered why some people just eat and eat and eat and get so big.   Don't they see what they are doing?   Maybe, just maybe in part it's due to the chemical wizards at Frito Lay and McDonald's and Hostess that have figured out ways to get certain people hooked on their food or at least prey on an existing weakness.  This FDA guy didn't just roll off a turnip truck he must know something...lol. 

Original Post by johnnypenso:

I've often wondered why some people just eat and eat and eat and get so big.   Don't they see what they are doing?   

 Mostly yes, they do see what they're doing.  Some just flat don't care and have no intention of changing their lifestyle....the bloody-minded 'we've all got to die of something' and 'I'll eat what I bloody well like' brigade are surprisingly vocal.

Some would like to turn things around but don't understand how.  You've only to read a few posts on these boards to appreciate that.  Many don't understand how many calories their regular diet contains or that their food choices are nutritionally poor and causing them to overeat.  How often do you see posts along the lines of 'do I have to change what I eat or just reduce the calories?'...  If people stick with their old diet but try to eat less of it they end up feeling very hungry and being even more badly nourished.  And then weight-loss becomes even more difficult than it already is.

Some have a mistaken concept that changing things would involve a large amount of expense....  Junk food is often very cheap - and I include the bargain frozen pizzas in the supermarket as well as a KFC bargain bucket.   And quite a lot of people simply can't put a meal together themselves... they can't cook. or they think it takes too long.  So there's a skill shortage adding to the problem.

That's an interesting quote from that book.

All my life I've said that Quarter Pounders from McDonald's have some kind of drug in them.  LOL.  There's something very addictive about the taste and smell of them.  It's hard to describe.  It's not the most tasty burger I've ever eaten, but yet eating one would put me into a sort of food-trance.

Another junk food that had that effect on me is Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

It's been years since I've eaten those kinds of foods, but I think that that book sounds like an interesting read.

Original Post by johnnypenso:

Perhaps you guys can explain why some people become addicted to gambling and others do not.  Why some people get addicted to alcohol and others do not.  

Of course we can. Addiction is usally symptamtic of a deeper problem and has little to do with what you are actually "addicted" to.  If something is truly addictive it's hard to quit even if you deal with the underlying issue. There are plenty of people that "abuse" junk food for years, yet if they want to stop, they can. Nobody needed clincial treatment to deal with McDonalds "withdrawl." 

Original Post by glindas:

That's an interesting quote from that book.

All my life I've said that Quarter Pounders from McDonald's have some kind of drug in them.  LOL.  There's something very addictive about the taste and smell of them.  It's hard to describe.  It's not the most tasty burger I've ever eaten, but yet eating one would put me into a sort of food-trance.

Another junk food that had that effect on me is Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

It's been years since I've eaten those kinds of foods, but I think that that book sounds like an interesting read.

 

I've been a vegetarian now for going on nineteen years, and the thought of actually eating meat kind of makes me ill...

Yet any time I'm near a Burger King with it's "flame-grilled burger" smell, I start to salivate!

I actually like to enjoy my food though. And while I pretty much eliminated junk food from my diet, I still get "hedonism on a plate" when I fix my own food. Like tonight, I made myself vegan mushroom fajitas for dinner. SO good!

Anyway, I also completely agree with clharr. And Some people like a lot of sugar or salt and preservatives in their snacks, but others (like me) don't. I think the companies are just catering their customers. How much the customers choose to eat it is their own buisness.

It's complicated. I think there is some validity to it. I've read the book, and Kessler does say that there is a subset of the population that doesn't respond to the sugar/fat/salt combo in a way that makes them eat and eat, past the point of being hungry. I don't think we can fault chain restaurants and junk food companies for trying to create food that makes you want to go back for more, time after time. That's just marketing after all and is done with many other things.  As long as there are people willing to buy the food, they will keep doing this. The majority of Americans probably eat this food and don't really care that it's unhealthy. They just want something quick, easy, cheap, and tasty. That's who they are marketing to. 

The concept of food addiction is a bit confusing to me. I guess I feel like a lot of people who say they are addicted to certain foods and just can't resist them, are also people with a history of dieting and restricting those foods or labelling them "bad." Of course if someone considers a particular food off-limits they are more likely to eat a lot of it when they get their hands on it. In my early 20s I tried a diet where I would eat nothing with sugar, not even fruit. All that would happen is I would go a week or two without any sugar, then run to the corner store and buy a pint of ice cream and devour the whole thing. I'm now able to have portion control with things like ice cream and I leave a little room in my diet for it. Moderation, for me, is definitely better than all-or-nothing, and I don't find that I struggle with it, for the most part.

I have a friend who read his book and said it validated everything she'd ever believed. She insists that she just can't have anything with fat, or sugar, or simple carbs. She says she'll binge uncontrollably. She literally eats no fat in her diet and restricts herself to the same foods every day, 365 days a year. She won't eat with her family on Thanksgiving or eat cake on anyone's birthday. She just pulls out her salad with grilled chicken and diet dressing and that's what she has, no matter what.  She also has a long history of dieting and deprivation, so it seems a little fishy to me.  She maintains a healthy weight, but at what cost?

*Just wanted to add that in his book Kessler recommends a diet of whole foods. It's actually pretty reasonable, and there's nothing Nazi-like about it. Obviously my friend is taking it to the extreme.

Wow, I basically wrote a book! Kudos to anyone who read that! ;)

Kudos to me then Naturalgirl because I read the whole thing...lol.   I think I'll look for the book on the weekend...hopefully the local Chapters has it....