Did you know that Cheetos Snacks are one of the most wonderfully designed foods in the history of culinary, aimed at pure pleasure?
This is the opinion of the American nutritionist Stephen A. Witherly of Technical Products, whose opinion is quoted by the New York Times Magazine, who dedicated one of his materials to what will someday destroy us all. A deliberately cultivated food addiction.
The main beauty of these cheese sticks is that they literally melt in your mouth. "It's called vanishing calories," Mr. Witherly postulates. - If something melts quickly, the brain thinks that there are no calories in it. Therefore, you can consume these things endlessly."
But this is, of course, a hoax, magazine author Michael Moss, 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner for exposing meat suppliers, tells us, and it is no accident: Snack companies spend a lot of money on research to develop products. which will circle the consumer's mind and enchant his taste buds, so that they are in a state of constant hunger. Insiders call this the bliss point. For this, the food industry pays special attention to combating the so-called sensory-specific satiety.
We are talking about the fact that the brain reacts to strong and varied aromas by reducing your desire to still taste a similar product. To avoid this, manufacturers of cheap food (like Coca-Cola or Doritos) resort to complex formulas that excite the taste buds without giving them an idea of one well-defined aroma telling the brain that it's time to stop eating.
However, the body cannot be fooled. You can have a lot of insatiable pleasure eating junk food, but it doesn't negate the fact that you've eaten another bag of calories.
Mr. Moss is silent about how much such food has contributed to the obesity epidemic in the United States, but it is clear that such a problem exists and that it has intensified along with the growth of the unhealthy food industry. Over the past three decades, the number of obese Americans has more than doubled, from 15% in 1980 to 36% in 2010. Over the same period, the spread of the disease among children of primary school age and adolescents increased even more sharply - from 5-6% to more than 18%.
A long-term study of body weight and nutrition in 120,877 men and women found in 2011 that potato chips caused the most weight gain. They are covered in salt and contain fat, which rewards the brain with instant pleasure. In addition, they contain sugar, and not specially added, but contained in potato starch.
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All of this makes chips a highly addictive product, almost a drug.