Salt Sugar Fat: Food products (even healthy) on a mission to make YOU fat.
It’s about sales — don’t take it personal.
Engineered foods, designed food products.
You think you fail with your best healthy-eating and diet efforts, because you have a willpower problem, that lean people like myself happen to have tons?
Think again.
What if I told you, that processed foods, food products, are actually engineered and designed to hook you, hook your brain, to make it almost impossible to stop eating them?
“The most crucial point to know is that there is nothing accidental in the grocery store. All of this is done with a purpose.”
“The most crucial point to know is that there is nothing accidental in the grocery store. All of this is done with a purpose.”
“They [products] are knowingly designed — engineered is the better word — to maximize their allure [aka sales]”
I’m reading quite fascinating books these days, books, that are not necessarily about diet, or nutrition, or fat loss, or even health, it’s kind of about everything, about business, about food, about neuroscience of our behavior and our eating evolution — there, to my own pleasant surprise, I find the most profound pieces of eating/diet/food/nutrition wisdom, that after self-reflection, lead to profound realizations.
I’ve finished “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us” book.
I thought, the book would be all about food industry, “evil” food business and food companies’ secret agenda to destroy the world, and it was, a bit, but mostly, there I found pieces of food “engineering” wisdom, that explained a lot of things in my own behavior and diet failures, when I used to consume packaged food, even healthy packaged processed foods, like organic energy bars, or protein bars, or keto cookies.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many many food producers, who actually make products from great quality ingredients, that are beneficial for our health, that is, if we eat them in normal amounts and can 100% portion control ourselves. But at the same time any food products are engineered to sell more, meaning to be eaten more often, very often meaning encouraging overeating, and let’s be honest, even keto cookies, or sugar free chocolate (that I’m absolutely hooked on), eaten in excess, are not a healthy eating behavior and will eventually lead to, at the very least, weight problems, and most often to different metabolic and other health problems.
Millions and billions of dollars are spent by big food companies on the best food science research, neuroscience, best food scientists, best marketers — they are not guessing when they design the products we can’t resist eating.
NO!
Everything is designed to sell, sell, sell — meaning so WE eat eat eat, keep eating, till you have space in your stomach, and sometimes much more beyond that point!
Food manufactures know, that there is, what they call a “bliss point” (Google it) — the exact amount of salt, sugar or fat needed to absolutely hook you on the food, making you come back for it again, and again, and again.
Food manufactures know, that we have satiety for sweet taste but not for fat, making fatty foods like cream cheese, foods we can eat till it hurts, never-ever getting a fullness signal from the brain.
Food manufactures know, that raising your blood sugar fast, and hitting the brain with the sweet bliss point fast, is a sure way to make you crave more of this product, and any food — the more you eat, the more sales.
Food manufactures know, that liquid calories, or melting-in-your-mouth foods (the faster and easier they melt — the better sales) will make you crave more food, will make you overeat, never reaching satiety point, because our brain is VERY bad at analyzing calories in liquids and melt-in-your-mouth kinds of foods. (Where would you find that in nature? We are not designed to handle it, even though it’s quite a pleasurable experience).
You see, food industry has never been about your health, your waist line, you self-esteem, your fitness, your benefits.
You see, food industry has never been about your health, your waist line, you self-esteem, your fitness, your benefits.
“They [food companies] are not thinking about the consumer’ welfare; they-re thinking about consumption and sales; as well they should, if they-re going to survive”
You can start getting angry at food companies, yes, even healthy food companies (they do too need to survive), creating products on a mission to make you eat more, not always for your benefit — you can get angry at them, or you can use the knowledge, you can understand, that food is business, and YOU need to take care of yourself and your eating habits, without falling into the traps set up to make you hungry at every corner, hungry for products, hungry for more.
Below is my Food Industry Survival Guide, that I’ve been using to keep 10–12% body fat, that most people find to be a miracle, when in reality, it’s just about eating whole foods, that have no labels, whole foods, not food products.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love my healthy food products, like sugar free chocolate and ice-cream, and keto sugar free protein cookies, like kale chips, like cacao and coconut butter, or keto cups — so many amazing products are out there!
But the less of them I eat, the more I eat whole foods, cooked simply, tasty, but not too exciting and tasty (since what is too exciting for our brain makes us overeat too) — the better I look and feel, without counting much of anything. It’s an awesome feeling — I get at least 10 compliments a day walking with abs showing, feels good, I assure you.
So the guide? To avoid food industry traps and unhook your brain? Getting fitter, not fatter?
ONE
Avoid packaged, engineered, designed foods as much as possible: organic or not, low carb or not. Designed-for-maximum-sales foods will make you overeat! Yes, even the healthy ones!
TWO
Eat simply and kind of boring most of the time. Check out some of my BORING DIET meals on Instagram.
Stay tuned for more on Instagram
THREE
When grocery shopping, always have a shopping list, and do not allow yourself to buy “exciting” food products, no matter how good they sound for home. If you want to try some new food product, buy as little as possible, decide exactly when and how much you will eat.
FOUR
Do not buy food products you know you might overeat in bulk to have at home.
Like I don’t buy Lily’s chocolate anymore, for example, in bulk, or even bags of nuts. Why? I know, that at times, I might end up eating the whole stock! I am a human too, and hunger + stress happens!
FIVE
Have a limit of food products for the day/week, pre-pack them into single portions, put the rest away, where you never see it, if you must keep it at home at all, and never go an INCH more from that limit. Your brain is like a Pandora Box — once you allow yourself to step over that limit — you won’t be able to stop, there is no way to close that Pandora Box.
But the main thing I want you to learn, understand and apply — Food is business. Food products are designed to make you overeat, or sell more in other words. Food products on purpose are designed to hijack and hook your brain.
Design your behavior and choices accordingly.
Be smarter.
Not FATTER.
TUNE IN to FOOD SCHOOL: SMARTER STRONGER LEANER podcast to learn Salt Sugar Fat Book: How food industry hacks your brain. Know it, use it to get fit instead of getting fatter.
