Once it happened to me that when I went with one of my family members to a shopping mall and she was busy searching for specific chocolate & as I was fascinated about why that one. she explained that, it was her best friend’s favorite chocolate.
I also picked one and ate it. It melted in my mouth like cotton candy and my taste buds got an orgasm with that chocolate. I was like Woah !!! What in the Heavens was that one. I binged a few more until I was high.
The very next day I was craving for that same chocolate – it was wrapped in a gold foiled cover with a shiny sticker. it looked like a golden nugget mined from the stars. damn why that chocolate wrapping was so attractive and the aesthetics were so pleasing. I couldn’t believe myself I bought a week worth of chocolate from the same shop and stored it in my refrigerator and started eating a squirrel stuffing nuts in its mouth.
By the way, am not a food guy, not even chocolates or sweets or anything you say makes mouth-watering. am not a fan at all. a
I usually eat like a caveman and am happy with it. raw vegetables and raw cooked meat and rice almost every day.
You may think well, eating like this is a mental problem lol.
Well, I have been brought up practicing to be satisfied with any kinda food that makes your stomach full enough to survive. and always gave the example of the people who starve to death on the other side of the world. this is what always made me humble enough to eat like this.
On the other side, I preferred this eating style purposefully because it made my health looks better. 80% I eat like this and 20% of it is eating with my family and friends outside the cave
But anyways coming back to my story I was so curious about that chocolate and why it made me so addictive. Being a health and fitness professional I was inquisitive enough to know the secrets behind these kinda foods.
How processed foods deceive us into consuming more than we are meant to?
There are few sneaky ways they make us do this. Oftentimes, we’re not even conscious of how much these factors influence us.
So being Mindful = Healthy
Marketing Media satisfies us that processed meals are “healthy”.
Processed foods come in boxes with glowing colors, cartoon characters, celebrity endorsements, and compelling words that trigger all kinds of positive relationships.
You’ll see chips “cooked with avocado oil,” sugary cereal “made with flaxseeds,” or creamy chip dip with “real spinach.”
The nutrient content of those foods isn’t especially impressive, but the extension of nutrition buzzwords and fashionable ingredients make us perceive them as healthier.
Marketers also choose words that relate more broadly to self-care.
“Have a break.”
“You deserve it.”
Expressions like “break” and “deserve” distract us from our physical awareness and tap into our emotions—a place where we just want to be recognized, approved, soothed, and perhaps just escape for a moment.
Multiple flavors together are irresistible.
That Nachos and dips you get when you are in the movie theater … mmmmmhhh …. how in the world it’s so delicious to eat. that Caramel popcorn and soft drink. why!!!!
well, these foods are engineered to be this hyper-palatable to consume.
So next time when you eat something and feels like there’s a party in your mouth, you can guarantee that at least two out of three of the following guests will be there:
- Sugar
- Fat
- Salt
These three flavors—the sweetness of sugar, the opulent mouthfeel of fat, and the intense savory of salt—are favorites among those of us with mouths.
I never heard my clients state that they love eating spoonfuls of sugar or salt, or that they want to chug a bottle of oil.
However, when you fuse these flavors, they become ultra-delicious and hard-to-resist. This is called stimuli stacking—combining two or more flavors to create a hyper-palatable food.
For instance:
- The satisfying mixture of fat and salt found in chips, fries, nachos, cheesy things, etc.
- The refreshing combination of fat and sugar, found in baked goods, fudge, ice cream, cookies, chocolate, etc.
- The invincible combination of all three—heaven forbids you to stumble on a combo of fat, salt, and sugar—a salted chocolate brownie, or caramel corn with candied nuts, or fries with ketchup!
Food corporations understand: When it comes to promoting people to overeat, two flavors are better than one.
Food Scientists in these companies design these “stimuli stacking” formulas that the food industry uses to create hyper-palatable food.
They call it “The Big 5.”
Foods that fulfill “The Big 5” are:
- Calorie dense, usually high in sugar and/or fat.
- Intensely flavored—the food must deliver strong flavor hits.
- Immediately delicious, with a love-at-first taste experience.
- Easy to eat—no effortful chewing needed!
- “Melted” down easily—the food almost dissolves in your mouth, thus easy to eat quickly and overconsume.
yup !! these are the elements that made my brain go mad on that chocolate.
When these five factors exist in one food, you get a practically irresistible product.
Foods produced by these companies have to hit the big 5, or they’re not allowed to go to market.
When processed food corporations assess a proposed food product, the “irresistibility” (the extent to which a person can’t stop eating food) is more significant even than taste!
Just think about the ease of eating whole foods versus processed foods:
Whole foods require about 25 chews per mouthful, which means that you have to slow down. When you slow down, your satiety signals keep pace with your eating and have a chance to tell you when you’ve had enough. (makes your stomach full in one salad bowl)
This is probably why you’ve never overeaten Brussel sprouts & Broccoli (also because, farting
Processed food manufacturers, on the other hand, aim for food products to be broken down into 10 chews or less per mouthful.
That means the intense, flavorful, crazy-delicious experience is over quickly, and you’re left wanting more—ASAP.
Restaurants use these “ease of eating” tactics, too.
A major international chain restaurant like KFC uses this sci-fi trick:
To make their signature chicken dish, each chicken breast is injected with a highly flavored sauce through hundreds of tiny needles. This results in a jacked-up chicken breast with intense flavor hits but also tenderizes the chicken so it requires less chewing.
In other words, there’s a reason that restaurant chicken often goes down easier and just tastes better than the simply grilled chicken breast you make in your kitchen.
Unless you have hundreds of tiny sauce needles to pump that chicken. this is not a practical method to recreate at home.
This is why I rarely talk about “willpower” to my clients when they come to me complaining about overeating. If you’re relying on willpower to resist these kinda hyper-palatable foods, you’re fighting like a caveman against THE AVENGERS.
The solution isn’t more willpower. The solution is educating yourself about these foods, reviewing your relationship with food, and employing strategies that put you in control.
So, now you see why processed foods are so hard to control yourself around.
But what can you do about it?
Plans to find your way back to a peaceful relationship with food.
- Get curious about the foods you eat.
We’ve established that processed foods are designed to be easy to eat.
For a food to be “easy to eat”, it has to be:
- broken down easily (less chewing), and
- low volume (doesn’t take up much physical space).
So:
Less chewing + Low quantity = More eating
Chewing takes time. The more we have to chew something, the longer it takes us to eat, giving our fullness signals a chance to catch up.
That feeling of “fullness” matters a lot too.
When you eat, your stomach expands. It’s partly through that sensation of pressure that your body knows you’ve had enough. Remember getting belly big after eating.
Processed foods deliver a lot of calories without taking up much space, meaning you can eat a lot before you realize you’ve overdone it.
Observe as you chew.
First, a vegetable, fruit, whole grain, lean protein, whatever—and count how many chews you take per mouthful. How long does it take to eat an entire portion of that food?
How satiated do you feel afterward?
Do you want to eat more? = you know what I meant here
Then, next time you eat something processed, count how many chews you take per mouthful. How long does it take to eat that serving of pasta, chips, or cookies?
How satiated do you feel afterward?
Do you want to eat more? =, of course, it just disappeared in your mouth lol.
These all are common sense but just needed some extra awareness to keep a mental check on them.
Once you do these simple things while you eat your next meal or every other meal. you can make a big change in your nutrition plan and without even noticing your body also starts changing to the best shape ever.
I had helped and currently helping many of my clients (through online training ) who are struggling with eating disorders. if you find any of the above information made interesting. Share this article with your friends and family.
