The Evolution of Eating: Part Four, Has Food Science, Psychology, and Neuroscience become our enemy?

Welcome back! This is the last article in my series, “The Evolution of Eating” Catch Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here. We will finish up this week with the effects of food science, psychology, and neuroscience on the food industry. I’m going to try to keep this as concise as possible. Hang on as I deliver this information like water from a firehose. Some of which, I am going to encourage you to go read for yourselves. It is very interesting.

Bliss point

Food “bliss point” was a phrase coined in 1990 by American Market Research and psychophysicist, Howard Moskowitz. The term bliss point describes what happens on your tongue and in your brain when the trinity of fat, salt and sweet activate pleasure sensors in your brain. Better known as the “reward zone”.

Many companies spend millions of dollars testing their product formulas to find the right bliss point. The bliss point is their money maker. And perhaps, the undoing of your health. In a New York Times article by Michael Moss, “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food”, Moss shared some valuable insights.

“The biggest hits – be they Coca-Cola or Doritos – owe their success to complex formulas that pique the taste buds enough to be alluring but don’t have a distinct, overriding single flavor that tells the brain to stop eating.”

-Micahel Moss, New York Times, The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food

I could go on to tell you of companies who spent millions of dollars researching their products bliss point. We don’t have the time or space, but I will give you a few examples:

• Dr Pepper® spent millions on research and taste testing of 61 formulas and arrived at Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper® which was their most successful product to date.
• According to a Nestle® press release, Nestle® studied the “detection mechanisms in the oral cavity” and “improving melt-in-mouth quality while simultaneously reserving enough space in the mouth for the aroma to enrich the sensorial experience,”

We certainly could apply “follow the money” to the food industry. They’ve hijacking our tastebuds and brain. It begs the question, “What makes food addictive?”

Key addictive ingredients

Key addictive ingredients contain several elements that the food industry employs. These elements are:

• Ingredients: sugar, fat, salt- all in beautifully balanced proportions- to please your brain’s reward center
• Texture: how it feels on your tongue from the first bite to last. Cheetos® has their cylindrical “puff” that dissolves on your tongue
• Shape: round shapes for chocolate have intended purpose. Nestle® did a study and found a round shape is more pleasing, and therefore consumption increased.

Outside of those three elements, the only remaining factor to pleasurable eating would be the dopamine response in your brain. The dopamine response is a key component in addiction. To demonstrate this, The Scripps Research Institute did a study for three years on two groups of rats. The first rat group ate healthy food. The second rat group ate unhealthy food that was very palatable.

Interestingly, Associate Professor Paul J. Kenny shared, “In the study, the animals completely lost control over their eating behavior, the primary hallmark of addiction. They continued to overeat even when they anticipated receiving electric shocks, highlighting just how motivated they were to consume the palatable food.”

Professor Kenny went on to state, “What happens in addiction is lethally simple. The reward pathways in the brain have been so overstimulated that the system basically turns on itself, adapting to the new reality of addiction, whether its cocaine or cupcakes.”

The rat’s study researchers removed second rat group’s unhealthy, very palatable food and offered the rats only healthy food. Those rats basically starved themselves for two weeks, refusing to eat healthy food. Can you see how addiction plays a role in unhealthy food?

Follow the money and the politics

We’d all be fools if we thought the food industry didn’t have lobbyist. And, we’d be even bigger fools if we thought money doesn’t buy favor. Recent global events have “pulled back the curtain” to some interesting folks with powerful agendas.

Hopefully, this article series has shed light on how eating has evolved. Elements of how we were originally programmed to find, and eat food, are being turned against us. Companies pay millions to get that right pleasure response to having their product be number one in consumption and sales.

We pay for increasingly poor health by eating unhealthy food; intentionally developed to be addictive. Now that I have armed you with some information, go and do some research. Our only hope is to use those original eating habits for eating healthy portions and a variety of healthy foods.

From nuts and fruits to a variety of meats, dairy, and fermented foods… The good stuff is still available. You have to change your way of thinking. Eat to good health!

Till next time. I promise there will be recipes! Here is to good friends, healthy food choices, and a healthy body and mind!

Resources:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts2qo44aNi4
• https://wakeup-world.com/2013/04/09/the-ultimate-craving-how-industry-designs-food-to-be-as-addictive-as-narcotics/
• https://theswaddle.com/why-is-junk-food-addictive-bliss-point/
• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/food-industry-accused-of-manipulating-products-to-make-people-buy-eat-more/
• https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1179&context=honorscollege_theses
• https://knowledge.insead.edu/marketing/the-neuroscience-of-eating-17141
• https://www.fcusd.org/cms/lib03/CA01001934/Centricity/Domain/1250/The%20Extraordinary%20Science%20of%20Addictive%20Junk%20Food.pdf
• https://www.scripps.edu/news-and-events/press-room/2010/20100329.html