How Does The Food Industry Exploit Our Inner Biological Drives?

In the?last newsletter , we’ve revealed the evolutionary reason why we naturally crave unhealthy foods. Regardless of our knowledge in nutrition, when we see a juicy hamburger our brain screams, Eat it now!!

In this article, we will understand how the food industry exploits our inner biological drives?

First, they intentionally change the chemistry and the structure of our food.?They remove the healthy fiber because it effectively has zero calories. Not only that, they add artificial sweeteners, salt, sugar, and oils to make those foods addicting and irresistible.?

What you’re left with is?CRAP, an acronym conceived by a well-known dietitian, Jeff Novick, for?calorie-rich and processed foods.

When Calories are condensed this way, it’s in the same way plants are turned into addictive drugs like opioids and cocaine. Those foods get us hooked. They even activate the same reward pathways in the brain (Link To Study ).

The above response was triggered with just a picture of a milkshake. People don’t suffer out-of-control eating behaviors to food in general. We don’t tend to compulsively crave carrots!!

Intellectually, we know it’s only a milkshake image, but our ancestral brains just see survival. Dopamine gets released, cravings get activated, and we’re motivated to eat. It’s simply a reflexive response over which we have seemingly little control, which is why marketers ensure there are pictures everywhere of milkshakes and the like. (Link To Study )

Now think about that, if just a picture of a milkshake triggers us so badly, the food industry has?spent more money on advertising?than any other sector of the economy (Link To Study ), McDonald’s alone spends billions a year on marketing (Link To Article ).

Not only the food we eat is designed so we crave it strongly, but they also put tempting pictures and ads all around us!

On top of that, the?government subsidies on processed?meats, sweets, eggs, oils, dairy, and soda are all getting cheaper, whereas the relative cost of fresh fruits and vegetables doubled (Link To Study ). How is it possible that manufacturing these highly processed foods which take a lot of work to produce, costs lower than healthy foods such as vegetables, fruits, and whole grains where it’s not as hard to grow? (Link To Study )

Because of the government subsidies, those unhealthy foods became more accessible and easier to overeat than ever.?

Cigarettes can be a great analogy here, in the twentieth century, the average cigarette consumption per person rose from 54 cigarettes a year to 4,345 (Link To Study ). The average American went from smoking about 1 cigarette a week to 70. That’s a half pack a day. Cigarette smoking went from being relatively uncommon to almost everywhere.

Tobacco itself was just as addictive before and after mass marketing. What changed was the much greater opportunity for cheap, accessible cigarettes. Just like what happened with the fattening and processed foods.?

As a consequence of all the above, there was an?explosion in the consumption?of high-calorie, high fat, and highly processed foods. Thanks to the food corporations, in today’s world, eating fattening and unhealthy foods is, unfortunately, the?easier choice!!?

??The bottom line:

My agenda is not to abstain from all those foods and products. I occasionally eat those foods as well. My message is to simply be more aware of why we choose certain products. Because once we understand the internal biological forces and we undercover the corporation's interest to get us addicted to unhealthy foods, we can make the best decisions regarding our health!

?? We hope you enjoyed today's article. If it helped you enrich your knowledge regarding this topic, make sure to?like?the article so more people can get inspired!

In next week's newsletter, we will examine the unimaginable consequences of the obesity pandemic, based upon one of the largest health studies in history. Stay tuned!

In the meanwhile, have a look at our latest youtube video, where we explain what's the optimal intermittent fasting method.