By Arun Gupta, related
One anonymous food-industry executive told Kessler, “Higher sugar, fat and salt make you want to eat more.” The executive admitted food is designed to be “highly hedonic,” and that the food industry is “the manipulator of the consumers’ minds and desires.”
This food is even designed to be pre-digested. Factory-farmed meats are ground up, injected with salt, water, a multitude of flavorings and chemicals, reconstituted and often processed with extra fat (like the McNugget). Speaking to an expert in “sensory stimulation and food,” Kessler explains how food is engineered to deliver pleasing flavors, aromatic and textural sensations and dissolve easily in the mouth. He writes: “in the past Americans typically chewed a mouthful of food 25 times before it was ready to be swallowed; now the average American chews only ten times.” Even the bolus — the wad of chewed food — is designed to be smooth and even. It’s “adult baby food.”
