Do You Love Junk Food? Actually, You're Addicted

The overweight kid next door is probably addicted. The

diabetic

mom across the street is probably addicted. And, you? You're probably addicted, too. We're all junkies for junk food — We just don't realize how badly we're hooked and how vast the conspiracy to keeps us dependent is.

That's the premise behind Michael Moss's book, "Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us," which he published after four years spent researching the big-name junk food production companies. The New York Times also published a synopsis of his findings and, the results are eye-opening: These food manufacturers aren’t content with mere focus groups and consumer

satisfaction surveys

to decide what sells. They're

actively

engineering foods with the winning combinations — taste, smell, texture, visual appeal, and "mouth feel," among others — to get us hooked. The industry is shelling out millions of dollars (up to $30 million a year in the case of Frito-Lay alone, to be precise) to hire chemists, psychologists, and technicians who will help them find the "bliss point" of their products, ie. the optimum point where people feel most satisfied with the products they're fed.

Think this just sounds like great customer satisfaction? Think again. The interests of the food giants don’t lay in the public’s happiness, if happiness is to be measured in our health instead of their wealth. According to Moss’s research, it's estimated that a staggering 1 in 3 adults and 1 in 5 children in America struggle with obesity. Additionally, 24 million Americans have type 2

diabetes

, which often stems from poor eating habits, while another 79 million are diagnosed with pre-diabetes. Even gout — a disease once reserved for gluttonous rich folks — is now shared among eight million Americans.

It’s not just the physical harm that affects us, either. Forget for one moment that eating poorly can lead to all kinds of mental issues — from hyperactivity and

depression

to body dysmorphia, just to name a few. The people who are selling you this food aren’t just targeting your stomach; They’re also using psychology to affect the way you feel when you eat these products, ensuring that you get the total sense of nurturing satisfaction whenever you crunch into a potato chip, or twist open an Oreo. Junk food isn’t just about eating, it’s about getting an entire,

packaged

experience.

So, the next time you’re reaching for that bag of delectable chocolate chip cookies at the

grocery

store, consider making

your

own treats at

home

, with ingredients you monitor yourself. If you’re having trouble naming the last vegetable you ate, you may want to grab a bag of carrots instead.

[Pic via Flickr - laura burns]