For Your Benefit, or Theirs? –
As we press down on the gas more & more each year, our pace through life has never been faster. The busier we get, the more we reach for convenience anywhere we can get it. One of these conveniences – food – loaded with salt, sugar, and bad fats.
Companies such as Nestle, Pepsi Co, Tyson, Mars, Coke, and Kraft, as well as fast food chains, have taken advantage of the need for convenient and quick foods to “serve” us as while we hustle through our lives. The reality is though, that these conveniences are
- slowing us down
- making us sick
- creating addiction & dependency
- & adding to the health crisis in our country
So, let’s take a look at the food on your table and see who you’ve really invited in for dinner.
They Are Businesses, Not Your Mom –
It was 1999. The top executives from the largest food industries in America met in Minneapolis. They were feeling the heat. Fingers were pointed in their direction as the obesity epidemic began to increase in both adults and children.
You see, each of these companies has shareholders. They are focused on growth and space on the grocery store shelves. Each one wants to create products that taste irresistible, are convenient and don’t cost much. That’s the business. Create the best tasting products that are easy for people to consume and taste so good that they become household staples. More so than caring that their food creations are harmful, they care about creating repeat customers and their profit margin. Can we blame them? They are businessmen, not our moms.
How They Do It –
The Salt, Sugar, Fat Formula
Howard Moscowitz coined the term, “bliss point” and defines it as, “that sensory profile where you like foods the most”. This is created by, if you will, the holy trinity in the food industry; salt, sugar, and fat. Food engineers take these ingredients and create specific combinations to enhance certain properties of a food.
Let’s just pause for a moment and re-read “FOOD ENGINEERS”. Much of the “food” we consume in this country is, in fact, the result of an engineering project. Projects that the engineers themselves often choose to avoid in their own diets! Geniuses on many levels, it seems! Ok, back to the food trinity.
Salt
Salt is used for texture, solubility, and taste.
Gross flavors, such as metallic tastes, can happen during food processing. Salt works to mask these flavors.
Through precise engineering, there are many forms of salt that provide different levels of flavor in the foods, ultimately activating the pleasure centers in our brains.
Sugar
It’s no secret that sugar is highly addictive.
Science has shown that addiction centers of the brain are activated with higher glycemic index (cause your blood sugar to rise quickly) foods.
Incorporating enough sugar into a food to activate these areas is top priority in food engineering projects.
