The Science of Addictive Food

Summary

This video script delves into the secretive and competitive food industry's use of science to engineer irresistible foods. Companies meticulously blend salt, sugar, and fat to reach 'bliss points,' making their products highly addictive. The industry also explores sensory experiences like crunch and mouthfeel to enhance appeal. Former executives and neuroscientists reveal the strategies used to trigger brain responses, leading to overconsumption and health issues. Despite some products now marketing health claims, the industry's focus remains on creating palatable, profitable foods that keep consumers coming back.

Takeaways

• 🍽️ The food industry is highly competitive and secretive, with the primary goal of creating food that is irresistible to consumers.
• 🧠 Companies use deep science to understand consumer attraction to food and how to make their products more appealing.
• 🔬 Research into the connection between taste receptors and brain chemistry results in the deliberate design of food combinations to maximize palatability.
• 📈 Michael Moss's investigation revealed the extensive use of math and science by companies to find the 'bliss point' of salt, sugar, and fat in their products.
• 🧀 The industry employs processes to enhance flavors without the need for expensive ingredients, such as cheese, by replicating chemical reactions.
• 🚀 Former industry executive Bruce Bradley shared his discomfort with the industry's practices and the link to increasing health issues like obesity.
• 🤔 The industry's secrecy makes it difficult to uncover the extent of food engineering, requiring extensive research and interviews.
• 🌐 The 'holy trinity' of processed foods—salt, sugar, and fat—are combined in ways nature never intended to create addictive products.
• 🍪 Neuroscience shows that certain food textures and flavors can trigger the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, contributing to food addiction.
• 🍫 Food scientists focus on the sensory experience, including the mouthfeel and sound of food, to create a moreish quality that encourages continued consumption.
• 🛒 Marketing strategies, such as health claims and the use of whole grains, are employed by the industry to maintain consumer interest and sales.

Q & A

What is the main goal of the food industry as described in the script?

The main goal of the food industry is to create food that is simply irresistible, with the aim of increasing their share of consumers' stomachs and the amount of profit they make from the food people eat.

What role does science play in the food industry according to the transcript?

Science plays a crucial role in the food industry by understanding how people are attracted to food and how to make their products more appealing. This includes the use of chemistry, physics, and biology to engineer the perfect combinations of salt, sugar, fat, and chemicals.

What is the term used to describe the perfect amount of salt, sugar, and fat in food products that make them irresistible?

The term used is the 'bliss point' for sugar, 'mouth feel' for fat, and 'flavour burst' for salt.

How does the food industry manipulate the sensory experience of eating to make their products more desirable?

The food industry manipulates the sensory experience by enhancing the taste, texture, and sound of food, such as the crunchiness, the melting experience of chocolate, and the use of flavor enhancers to create artificial tastes and smells.

What is the term 'vanishing caloric density' and how does it relate to food addiction?

'Vanishing caloric density' refers to the phenomenon where foods that melt in the mouth, like Cheetos, trick the brain into thinking the calories have disappeared, leading to overconsumption before the brain signals that enough has been eaten.

What is the 'bliss point' and how does it contribute to food addiction?

The 'bliss point' is the perfect amount of an ingredient, such as sugar, that makes a food product irresistible. It contributes to food addiction by creating a strong desire to consume more of the product.

How does the food industry use neuroscience to enhance the appeal of their products?

The food industry uses neuroscience to understand the mechanisms that drive food preference and to create products that trigger the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, such as endorphins, when consumed.

What is the significance of the 'moreish' quality in food products?

The 'moreish' quality refers to foods that make consumers want more, often achieved by an intense taste hit at the beginning that quickly fades, prompting the consumer to take another bite to refind the taste.

How does the food industry ensure their products can sit on shelves for months without spoiling?

The food industry uses preservatives and chemicals to control the appearance and texture of their products, ensuring they can be stored for long periods without spoiling.

What is the role of sensory evaluation in the food industry?

Sensory evaluation is used to determine consumer preferences and acceptance of different ingredients or product formulations, helping the industry to refine their products to maximize appeal.

How is the food industry responding to health concerns and changing consumer demands?

The food industry is adapting by introducing products with health claims, using whole grains, fiber, and real fruits or vegetables, while still focusing on making these products appealing and irresistible to consumers.

Outlines

00:00

🍔 The Irresistible Appeal of Processed Foods

This paragraph delves into the strategies employed by the food industry to create products that are hard to resist. It discusses how companies use science to understand and manipulate our attraction to food, aiming to maximize profit by increasing their share of consumers' stomachs. The script reveals the industry's focus on the 'bliss point' of sugar, 'mouth feel' of fat, and 'flavour burst' of salt, which are carefully engineered to make their products irresistible. The use of scientific research, including chemistry, physics, and biology, is highlighted to create profitable and palatable foods. The segment also touches on the personal struggles of a food industry insider who eventually left due to ethical concerns about the impact of these foods on public health.

05:00

🧠 Neuroscience and the Food Industry's Tactics

The second paragraph explores the intersection of neuroscience and food production, illustrating how companies leverage our brain's reward system to create addictive foods. It describes an experiment where a chef's brain was imaged while eating chili, showing the release of feel-good chemicals in response to the spice. This ties into how food scientists manipulate the texture, sound, and taste of food to make it 'moreish', encouraging consumers to continue eating. The concept of 'vanishing caloric density' is introduced, explaining how certain foods trick the brain into not feeling full, leading to overconsumption. The sensory sciences lab at the University of Guelph is featured, where students learn about sensory evaluation and the importance of balancing flavors to maintain consumer interest over time.

10:04

🛒 The Changing Landscape of Food Marketing

The final paragraph examines the recent trends in food marketing, where health claims and nutritional enhancements are becoming more prevalent. It suggests that while the food industry may be adapting to market demands for healthier options, their primary motivation remains profit. The segment questions whether these changes are genuine steps towards healthier food production or simply new strategies for maintaining sales volume. It concludes with the assertion that regardless of the nutritional content, the food industry will continue to rely on its ability to make consumers want to return for more.

Keywords

💡Irresistible

The term 'irresistible' refers to something that is extremely hard to resist or avoid due to its appeal or attractiveness. In the context of the video, it is used to describe the food products that the industry designs to be so appealing that consumers cannot help but overeat them. The script mentions that the food industry's goal is to create food that is 'simply irresistible', indicating their aim to make products that consumers will continuously crave and consume.

💡Food Industry

The 'food industry' encompasses all businesses involved in the processing, preservation, packaging, distribution, and sale of food products. In the video, the food industry is portrayed as a highly competitive and secretive sector that employs scientific methods to make their products more appealing and addictive. The script discusses how companies within this industry are focused on increasing their share of consumers' stomachs and profits through the manipulation of food's taste and texture.

💡Science of Food

The 'science of food' involves the study of the physical, chemical, and biological processes that occur in food production and consumption. The video script delves into how companies use deep science to understand and manipulate the attractiveness of food. It mentions the research into the connection between taste receptors and brain chemistry, as well as the engineering of food combinations that are hard to resist, illustrating the scientific approach to creating palatable and addictive food products.

💡Bliss Point

'Bliss point' is a term used in the food industry to describe the optimal level of a taste component, such as sugar, that makes a food product maximally palatable and pleasurable. In the script, Michael Moss explains how companies find the perfect amount of salt, sugar, and fat to hit the 'bliss point' for consumers, making their products irresistible and leading to overconsumption.

💡Addictive Foods

The term 'addictive foods' refers to food products that have properties that can lead to compulsive eating behaviors similar to drug addiction. The video discusses how the combination of salt, sugar, and fat in processed foods can be addictive, with scientific evidence supporting this claim. It includes personal accounts of individuals, like Pat, who struggle with food addiction, highlighting the impact of these foods on consumers' health and behavior.

💡Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system and brain functions. In the context of the video, it is used to explain how food companies use knowledge of the brain's response to food to create products that trigger the release of 'feel-good' chemicals. Francis McGlone, a neuroscientist featured in the script, conducted studies showing how certain foods can stimulate the brain's reward system, contributing to the addictive nature of certain food products.

💡Sensory Science

Sensory science is the study of how our senses perceive and react to stimuli, particularly in the context of food and flavor. The script introduces the sensory sciences lab where students learn to conduct sensory evaluations to determine preferences for different food ingredients, such as varying sodium levels. This field is crucial in the food industry for understanding how to design food that appeals to consumers' senses and drives repeat consumption.

💡Vanishing Caloric Density

The concept of 'vanishing caloric density' refers to the phenomenon where foods that melt quickly in the mouth can trick the brain into thinking that they have fewer calories, leading to overeating. The script uses the example of Cheetos to illustrate this concept, explaining how the brain may not register the full caloric intake, thus delaying the satiety signal and promoting continuous eating.

💡Flavor Enhancers

Flavor enhancers are additives used in the food industry to intensify the taste of food products. The video script mentions these enhancers as a way to trick the brain into perceiving flavors that may not be present in the food due to the use of artificial ingredients. This technique is used to create an appealing taste while maintaining a long shelf life and reducing costs.

💡Moreish

'Moreish' is a term used to describe food that is so enjoyable that one wants to have more of it. In the script, food industry consultant Chris Lukehurst explains the strategy of making foods 'moreish' by designing them to have an intense initial taste that quickly fades, prompting consumers to take another bite to recapture the flavor. This approach is used to encourage continuous consumption of the product.

💡Health Claims

In the context of the video, 'health claims' refer to the marketing strategies used by the food industry to promote their products as healthier options, often by highlighting certain ingredients like whole grains or fiber. The script suggests that while there is a shift towards healthier food options, the industry's primary motivation is still profit, and they will adapt their products to market demands without necessarily reducing the overall amount of food sold.

Highlights

The food industry is highly competitive and secretive, with the goal of creating food that is irresistible to consumers.

Companies aim to increase their share of consumers' stomachs and profits through food engineering.

Science and research are used to understand and manipulate food attraction and consumption.

The industry focuses on the perfect balance of salt, sugar, and fat to create the 'bliss point' for maximum appeal.

Food engineering involves chemistry, physics, and biology to make profitable and addictive food products.

Techniques are used to enhance flavors without using the actual ingredients, reducing costs.

Neuroscience is applied to understand the brain's response to food and create products that trigger feel-good chemicals.

Food scientists study the mouthfeel and sound of food to create a more satisfying eating experience.

The industry uses terms like 'moreish' to describe foods that make consumers want more.

Food shape and texture are designed to be comforting and pleasant to enhance consumer appeal.

Vanishing caloric density tricks the brain into thinking calories have disappeared, leading to overeating.

Sensory science labs teach students how to conduct evaluations to determine food preferences.

Preservatives and chemicals are used to maintain food quality and appearance over long shelf lives.

Flavor enhancers are used to create artificial tastes and smells that feel real to consumers.

The food industry is adapting to health trends by incorporating health claims and whole grains into products.

Despite health claims, the industry's goal remains to create products that consumers will continue to buy and eat.

Transcripts

♪ ♪

Well, if you've ever found yourself saying,

"I just couldn't help myself,"

when you ate too much of the wrong food,

you just might be right.

A lot of people put a lot of work into making sure

we keep on eating.

As our health reporter Kelly Crowe discovered,

it's a highly competitive, highly secretive industry

with one goal: food that is simply irresistible.

♪ ♪

Man: They're trying to increase their share of your stomach.

♪ ♪

And increase the amount of profit they're making

off the food you eat.

I ate to the point that it hurt to move

and I would just lie on my bed and wish I was dead.

[crunching]

Man: These companies rely on deep science

and pure science to understand how we're attracted to food

and how they can make their foods attractive to us.

[crunching]

Kelly Crowe: There's science behind that crunch.

Yogurt feels that way in your mouth for a reason.

The food industry is even researching the connection

between the taste receptors on your tongue

and the corresponding chemical reaction in your brain.

The result: carefully engineered combinations

of salt, sugar, fat, and chemicals

deliberately designed so you can't eat just one.

[crunching]

Michael Moss spent four years investigating the science

behind processed food.

Michael: I was totally surprised.

I spent time with the top scientists

at the largest companies in this country,

and it's amazing how much math and science

and regression analysis and energy they put into

finding the very perfect amount of salt, sugar and fat

in their products that will send us over the moon.

Kelly: A search through a database of scientific papers

and food industry patents reveals

the extent of the science behind food engineering.

Chemistry, physics, biology: all commandeered

into the service of making profitable food.

Here's a process for enhancing the cheese flavour

without the cheese, where starting materials

are proteins and fats;

which means the amount of expensive cheese

can be reduced substantially.

And if they can replicate that chemical reaction

that may happen on your tongue or an aroma,

they can simulate the taste of something

without it being at all real.

Kelly: Bruce Bradley knows first hand

what goes on inside the food industry;

a former executive at several large food companies,

he's now a writer and industry critic.

Bruce: There were certainly times that I felt uncomfortable

or troubled by what I was doing,

and I think that's ultimately, you know,

one of the reasons why I left the industry.

And then you see trends like obesity

and health issues that are increasing,

mainly driven by the food that we eat.

It was hard for me not to just

take a more thorough assessment of what I was doing.

Kelly: The food industry is extremely secretive,

competitive, and proprietary.

It took years and hundreds of interviews

before Michael Moss could finish his book.

Michael: This was like a detective story for me.

Getting inside the companies with thousands of pages

of inside documents, and getting their scientists

and executives to reveal to me the secrets

of how they go at this.

Kelly: What did he find? That the food processing industry

rests on three pillars: salt, sugar, and fat.

Michael: These are the holy trinity of processed foods.

And again, when they hit the perfect amounts,

they call it the "bliss point" for sugar,

the "mouth feel" for fat, the "flavour burst" for salt;

they know that their products will be irresistible.

♪ ♪

[crunching]

Salt, sugar, and fat in combinations

nature never intended.

And increasingly, scientists agree that there is evidence

that these highly palatable foods

can be addictive.

Pat: Yeah, well for me, I'll be spooning or reaching

or whatever, and I'll be thinking,

"I've got to stop, I've got to stop, I've got to stop,"

and I just don't stop.

Kelly: Her name is Pat, and she's a food addict.

I was desperate when I was a food addict,

it was really, really devastating

and I felt powerless and ashamed and it was horrible.

Kelly: Her kitchen is a battleground:

every meal a challenge to remember that for her,

even a taste of sugar can set her back.

Pat: Seeing food will trigger it,

advertising for food will trigger it.

These foods are so,

so addictive, so appealing.

TV Announcer: Every cookie is crammed with joy.

There are many food addicts who say

that long after the food stopped causing us joy,

long after it started causing us misery,

we still couldn't stop.

How about one of those chips?

Just one?

So it becomes hardwired and it's very hard to overcome.

TV Announcer: Betcha...

And while the industry hates the word addiction

more than any other word, the fact of the matter is

that their research has shown them

that when they hit the very perfect amounts

of each of those ingredients, they'll send us over the moon.

That their products will fly off the shelf,

we'll eat more, we'll buy more,

and as they are companies, they will make more money.

We're activating those limbic structures...

Kelly: Francis McGlone is a neuroscientist.

As part of a BBC program, he put a British chef

into a brain imaging machine and fed him chilli.

Man: Every 38 seconds, Ashley had a drop of chilli oil

squirted on his tongue.

Kelly: And watched as the heat from the chilli peppers

triggered a release of feel good chemicals in the brain.

The consequence of that low level of pain

is that it floods the brain with its own natural opiates.

Kelly: Francis McGlone was a pioneer.

One of the first neuroscientists to work

in the food industry.

He spent ten years doing neuroscience for Unilever,

one of the world's largest food companies.

As a basic neuroscientist, I was able to look at the mechanisms

that basically drove preference for various types of food.

Kelly: Using neuroscience, Unilever made headlines

with this finding: ice cream tickles the brain.

Just one spoonful lights up the happy zones of the brain

in clinical trials, the company reported.

This is the other part of the body that fascinates

food scientists: the mouth.

The way food breaks between the teeth;

the pressure of the bite force; the sound of the crunch.

Chris: Partly, it's the noise.

The noise, of course amplified by the fact

that your jawbone is connected to your years,

and you really hear that crunch quite loudly as you bite.

But it's also the physical requirement to chew on something

and to crunch it. Just distracts you,

it pulls your mind onto what you're eating.

Kelly: Chris Lukehurst is a food industry consultant

who helps companies come up with foods

that are what he calls "moreish"--

in other words, make you want more.

Chris: They want you, at the end of each product,

to reach for the next one and put it in again.

And they often achieve that by having a very intense taste hit

right at the front of the mouth,

and then it dies off very quickly.

And so by the time you've finished each mouthful,

you're looking to refind that taste that you've lost.

Kelly: The shape of the food is also important.

Chocolate should not have sharp edges.

Absolutely, we're looking for chocolate to be comforting,

to be a really pleasant, lovely experience in the mouth.

Um, melt is a very soft, soft experience,

and if it's got sharp corners, you're really spoiling that

and actually setting the consumer on edge slightly

before they get the melt.

Kelly: Food scientists know what it takes

to trigger the brain to stop eating:

they call it:

And that's an expression that says when foods have

one overriding flavour, if it's attractive,

it'll be really attractive to us initially,

but then we'll get tired of it really fast.

And so these companies make a concerted effort

to make their foods not bland, but really well blended.

Kelly: And why can't you stop at just one?

It's called:

Vanishing caloric density applies to those things

like Cheetos that melt in your mouth,

and what happens is then that your brain gets fooled

into thinking the calories have vanished,

and you're much more apt to keep eating

before the brain sends you a signal,

"Hey, you've had enough."

[crunching]

[chatter]

Kelly: Welcome to the sensory sciences lab

at the University of Guelph.

Lisa: Can one person from each group come here for a minute?

This is teaching the students how to set up

a sensory test. So all the students in this class

are learning the basics of conducting sensory evaluation

research, because it's not...

It's not as simple as eating a food.

They are different in an ingredient,

and what we're looking for is to determine

which one is preferred or accepted by people.

So, um... in this case,

it's actually a different sodium level.

So which one did you like better?

I liked the second one better.

The salty one?

The saltier one, yep.

Kelly: Because these products must be able

to sit on the shelves for months,

many of the ingredients have nothing to do with taste

but act as preservatives and chemicals

to control the appearance and texture.

And a series of ingredients known as flavour enhancers

to trick the brain into tasting something that isn't there.

There's tremendous amounts of money spent behind creating

tastes and smells that feel real, but in reality,

are completely artificial.

Kelly: Because without flavour enhancement,

no one would eat it.

It would taste horrible.

You would just, you know, you'd want to spit it out.

Kelly: One food company made a special batch of crackers

for Michael Moss to taste without any salt at all.

It was a god awful experience tasting those things.

Normally, I can eat Cheez-Its all day long,

but the Cheez-Its without the salt,

I couldn't even swallow them.

They stuck to the roof of my mouth.

Kelly: A tour of the grocery aisle reveals

that something is changing:

suddenly, cookies boast health claims;

chips have whole grain and fibre.

If the food industry can find a way to market it

and make money off of it, I'm sure they will.

But if it long-term is decreasing the amount of food

that they can sell, I don't see it as being an avenue

that they'll go down.

Kelly: So whether lower in salt, sugar, or fat,

higher in fibre and grains; containing real fruit

or baked with real vegetables;

you will be back for more.

The food industry depends on it.

Kelly Crowe, CBC News, Toronto.