Although over one-and-a-half years old, The Extraordinary Science of Junk Food is well worth reading. It documents the concern some food manufacturers had about the obesity epidemic fifteen years ago and how they tried to do something about it. Unfortunately, as it reveals, that concern was not received well by many industry executives. Their interest is in profit and nothing else.
The daughter of the inventor of Lunchables when asked about her children eating them replied, ““I don’t think my kids have ever eaten a Lunchable,” she told me. “They know they exist and that Grandpa Bob invented them. But we eat very healthfully.” Grandpa Bob’s remorse over his part is put on view for everyone as well as that of several other ex-food industry scientists.
Most importantly, if you’re having trouble cutting certain foods from your diet, it is partially because junk/snack foods are designed to be as addictive as possible. Cheetos are lauded by one food scientist as one of “the most marvelously constructed foods on the planet” due to the fact that they make your brain think they have no calories in them. Much like tobacco companies did years ago, food manufacturers are working to make sure you consume as much of their product as often as possible to drive bigger profits.
This article was first published on September 17, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.
