When the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration comes out and accuses the food industry of manipulating the levels of key ingredients in their products to create want amounts to an addiction, we took notice.
David Kessler has written a book The End of Overeating, and he does not mince words about how he feels the companies that stock our grocery store shelves and pantries are complicit in the great obesity epidemic we are now facing. Kessler points out that salt, sugar and fat levels are all manipulated by food processors to enhance their appeal to our taste buds and brains, creating what he terms “hyperpalatable” foods. Foods that create a neurological addiction with their consumption. These foods are cheaply made, packed with sugar and salt and loaded up with caloric energy.
You can’t get past the first end-cap display at your local supermarket without seeing these types of food. And there is growing evidence of their addictive nature. Researchers have shown how rats that were given sugary laden diets and then denied that aspect of their diet showed withdrawal symptoms like heavy drug users. People often joke that they are addicted to sugar, but the evidence is mounting that like big tobacco, the food industry has played a not so wholesome role in altering their products to condition an involuntary desire for more.
So, will we look back at this period in time and think of food industry behemoths like Kraft, Sara Lee, and Pepsico like we do with Philip Morris, Reynolds and Lorillard?