The Food Industry is Manipulating you to be Obsessive for High Salt, Sugar and Fat

Every day we see new reports on some of the major reasons why our Western culture society is facing an increasing obesity problem. These are not surprising reports, because in all sincerity, most Americans know they are consuming high fat, high sugar and high sodium foods. The problem may be a lot more complicated than just removing our visits to fast food, the food industry itself is involved in scientific methods to keep us returning to these unhealthy comfort foods. Removing these foods that cause such elevated medical risks takes more than just will power.

In his book “Salt Sugar Fat”, Michael Moss, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, took a deep investigative approach to the food industry and the production of the foods we love. It appears that the food industry has created a cycle of high salt, sugar and fat products based on scientific formulas. They have created products knowing that humans have certain criteria: the ‘bliss point’ for example is the amount of sugar that will appease our tastes and make us buy more. From a fat standpoint, there is an industry term called ‘mouth feel’, which is the sensation in our mouth for gooey, warm taste of cheese that causes the pleasure centers of the brain to react in the same manner as the ‘bliss point’ in sugar. It may not be surprising that the food industry has based a lot of study on what we call ‘addiction’ but they refer to as ‘crave-ability’. If you are in doubt of this last point, just get stuck in the turning lane into any McDonald’s restaurant. Not only is the line long, but people have a loss of focus on the actual driving and more on the goal of getting their food.