{"id":12921,"date":"2021-04-27T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alifeofproductivity.com\/?p=12921"},"modified":"2022-09-15T02:04:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T02:04:39","slug":"the-5-things-that-make-processed-food-addictive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/the-5-things-that-make-processed-food-addictive\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 things that make processed food addictive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Takeaway:<\/b>The processed food industry has become incredibly sophisticated in the way it gets us to eat more of what it makes. Estimated Reading Time:<\/b>1 minute, 37s.<\/div><\/div>\n

\"The<\/p>\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For this\u00a0week\u2019s podcast\u00a0episode\u00a0I sat down with\u00a0Michael Moss,\u00a0the Pulitzer\u00a0Prize-winning\u00a0author of\u00a0Salt Sugar Fat<\/em>\u00a0and now,\u00a0Hooked:\u00a0Food,\u00a0Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0Hooked<\/em>\u00a0is an incredible book: a deep dive into the processed food industry and\u00a0a look at\u00a0how\u00a0highly-processed\u00a0food can be\u00a0even\u00a0more addictive than hard drugs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My\u00a0main takeaway from the book\u00a0is\u00a0how we shouldn\u2019t see processed food as food: it\u2019s more of a Frankenstein-esque\u00a0lab creation.\u00a0Michael\u00a0illustrates this with the example of pumpkin spice\u2014one of the coziest-feeling\u00a0flavors\u00a0I can think of:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“In our kitchen cabinets, pumpkin spice is made of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and maybe ginger. Not so in processed food. Its pumpkin spice is simulated through the deployment of as many as eighty elements.”\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Companies have learned to isolate flavor compounds and add them to our food\u2014without our knowledge or permission\u2014to make what we eat taste like something it\u2019s not. Our latte\u00a0may\u00a0taste<\/em>\u00a0like pumpkin, but in\u00a0reality, it\u2019s a cocktail of other ingredients\u00a0concocted in chemical laboratories.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Flavor<\/strong>\u00a0is the main lever processed food companies use to\u00a0hook\u00a0us\u00a0on\u00a0their products.\u00a0According to\u00a0Michael, the others are:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n